Words That Wound, Gestures Scar: SCHOOL VIOLENCE AND COMMUNICATION IN ALGERIA

A universal issue, a worldwide pandemic, a health issue, a social epidemic, a dangerous threat, an alarming problem. These are the words used to introduce school violence around the world. Researchers, experts, from their respective perspectives tried to define school violence but in vein. The Algerian schools with their different specificities could not find the responses in de-contextualized researches. Most of the attention was unfortunately directed to the consequence, i.e., physical violence, and not the hidden roots: verbal and nonverbal violence. The complexity of the phenomenon urged us to opt for several research tools like (re)visiting the literature about the issue. The results showed that almost all the physical incidents were preceded by either verbal or -mainly- nonverbal phases of violence. Therefore, revisiting the definitions, (re)training the stakeholders, reviewing the strategies and the programs should be the new priority. Promoting peace is the responsibility of all the stakeholders. The whole community can be endangered by school violence, not to say violences.