Our schools of scandal

February 22 2012 at 08:45am
By CANDICE BAILEY, NONTOBEKO MTSHALI AND KUTLWANO OLIFANT

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Two pupils and two drug dealers were held after cops found dagga and a drug called nyaope at two schools. Photo: Matthews Baloyi

A 10-year-old pupil was allegedly made to spend the whole day without her trousers; a primary school principal allegedly came to school drunk; and 16 schoolchildren have been found with drugs.

All of this happened on Tuesday at four different schools in Cosmo City, Lenasia and Soweto. The Gauteng Department of Education said the incidents would be probed.

According to a mother, who cannot be named to protect her daughter’s identity, the Grade 4 pupil at Cosmo City Primary School No 1 who wore her long, grey school trousers to school instead of her school skirt was made to strip down to her panties. She was left wearing a school shirt and jersey for the entire day.

Her furious mother said her skirt was wet from the rain the day before.

When the school day finished, she was forced to go home without her trousers because they had been misplaced.

The pupil’s mother is furious with the principal, Kgomotso Khumalo, who did not call her to fetch her daughter. But Khumalo denied the allegations, saying she made the pupil stand under the carport only until 10am.

She said the girl was one of about 70 pupils who wore the incorrect uniform on Tuesday.

“I told them ‘you are dressed like a circus’. What I usually do is ask them to stand under the carport until break at 10am and then they go back to class. I then give them a letter for their parents.”

Khumalo admitted that she did not give any of the pupils letters on Tuesday, but said she had been disciplining pupils since January about their uniforms. She said there were four girls among the boys, and the excuse by many was that it was raining on Monday.

But the girl’s mother said the school’s head of department (HoD) admitted that this was done to several pupils. When the mother arrived at the school on Tuesday, she was told the principal was not available. She was forced to wait for two hours before the HoD saw her.

“When I asked if they thought it was safe to make my kid walk around naked, the HoD said there was nothing wrong with that. What if my daughter got raped in the school toilets?”

The mother was told that the school’s phone did not make outgoing calls. The school, she said, did not think stripping the pupils was a violation of rights.

Gauteng Department of Education spokesman Charles Phahlane said no pupil should be humiliated at school. The department would investigate.

In Lenasia South, the principal of a primary school is accused of coming to work drunk. He is now being investigated by the Gauteng Department of Education following a tip-off it received through LeadSA on Tuesday.

“The principal left the school when officials confronted him. But when he returned to fetch his car, officials were waiting for him,” said Phahlane. “The investigations are at an advanced stage and the department will provide further information when these are completed,” he said.

LeadSA’s Yusuf Abramjee said they were alerted three weeks ago that the principal is allegedly regularly drunk at school. “Teachers and kids have picked it up. He apparently refused to take a breathalyser test and claimed he had to rush away from school because a family member was critical in hospital. He left the school with a family member.”

When The Star visited the school on Tuesday, teachers remained tight-lipped about the goings-on, but some parents, who were waiting outside to fetch their children, didn’t hold back their feelings. “Again there’s a problem,” said one parent, after hearing that department officials were at the school, adding that the principal was a “piece of s**t”.

A community leader who has two children at the school, said he often sees children playing outside during class time. “Teachers hold meetings during class time. At one stage people from outside had to walk into the school to break up a fight between two girls. They were bleeding but no one at the school helped them,” he claimed.

He said that at parent/ teacher meetings, the input that’s given and the plans that are laid out rarely see the light of day.

Another parent, who also has two children at the school, alleged that teachers use corporal punishment despite this being against the law.

The Star could not independently verify the allegations.

And in Soweto, two pupils and two drug dealers were locked up on Tuesday after police confiscated dagga and a drug called nyaope at Dr Vilakazi and Lavela high schools in Zola.

In total 16 children were found in possession of drugs, but 14 of them were instructed to bring their parents to school on Wednesday.

Around 8am, police and community policing forum members stormed Dr Vilakazi school, catching two girls and three boys with drugs. The five were spared a night in jail as they are minors.

Next was Lavela school. The school hit the headlines last week when 700 pupils and some teachers arrived late for school during an unannounced visit by Gauteng Education MEC Barbara Creecy and members of LeadSA.

Learning and teaching was in progress on Tuesday when police stormed classes.

Boys and girls were separated, and instructed to stand opposite each other as their school bags were searched.

Eleven pupils were found in possession of dagga, but only two were arrested as they are not minors.

Cellphones were confiscated and handed to teachers to return to pupils after school. One pupil led police officers to a house in Ndou Street, Emndeni Extension, were he had bought the dagga. Police raided the house and a 55-year-old man was arrested.

- The Star

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