Durban - They kept quiet for half a century, but now a group of 30 Durban High School old boys have posthumously “outed” a respected maths teacher and athletics coach at the prestigious school as a paedophile.
They say he sexually assaulted them on camping trips to the Drakensberg and during sailing trips around the harbour.
The school’s present principal, Leon Erasmus, and its governing body chairman, Justin Paul, released a joint statement this weekend “unreservedly apologising” to the victims of Harold “Jiggs” Gray, who taught at the school for 30 years from the 1950s to 1980s.
Gray – who died in 1993 – had a maths prize in his name. This is now to be rededicated.
“We are completely shocked and devastated,” Erasmus and Paul said in a statement published in the school’s newsletter this weekend.
“It is regrettable that the school management of this period did not take the appropriate action to stop the abuse. The DHS management team will never put the reputation of the school above the safety of learners.”
The past pupils, some of whom are now in their 70s, began rallying together in June 2013 after victim Dr Graham Bell, who now lives in Australia, wrote a “discussion piece” published on a closed website of the DHS class of 1964.
Bell told The Mercury that he identified himself as one of Gray’s victims and called for an apology from the school for the neglect of duty of care by successful school managements.
“I believe they allowed Gray to work at the school and, with impunity, draw victims from an annually refreshed pool of young boys,” he said.
Bell said the victims described a similar sequence of events. Gray would invite one or two boys aged 13 to 15 to go camping for a weekend.
He would assure their parents that he would look after them and that he had all the necessary equipment.
“That turned out to be a three-man sleeping bag stitched together by Gray. He would take them to a secluded area in the Drakensberg and sexually assault them over two or three days.
“He would also invite boys to go out on Durban bay on his two-man yacht at weekends and, on a calm day, he would take them to a secluded beach on Salisbury Island and sexually assault them.
“In most cases the victim was too ashamed to tell anybody … it is probable there were many victims, probably hundreds, during his long-tenure at the school.”
Bell said some warned their schoolmates and Gray gained a reputation as a “sex abuser”.
Other teachers knew this, and some parents complained, “but nothing was done, as it was common practice in those days, and institutions ignored such crimes in the interests of their own reputations”.
“DHS did nothing to curb him … they even provided him with an office after his retirement and created a maths prize named in his honour.”
He said the 30 “concerned old boys, including some of Gray’s victims”, decided to demand acknowledgement of what happened from the school, to demand an apology and for the creation of policies to ensure this would never happen again.
Not all their former classmates were happy, fearing reputational damage to the school.
But the group collected nine affidavits and presented them to the school in September last year.
“After extensive investigations and negotiations an agreement was signed with an undertaking to publish the apology on June 5. The agreement stated that if the school did not name Gray the old boys would,” Bell said.
He said while they welcomed the apology and the implementation of a system to report abuse, they were not happy that the school had not named Gray.
“We have asked the school to confirm his identity to protect current and past staff from unnecessary and false accusation. We also want the apology to reach as many of his victims as possible.
“It is likely that other schools in South Africa have their own histories of concealed abuse and we hope they will follow the leadership of DHS to investigate, confront and apologise for any abuse that has been covered up in the past.
“Never again should a school’s reputation be more important than its duty of care to its young learners,” said Bell.
He said anyone with information about “historical paedophilia” at the school should contact the Concerned Old Boys at: [email protected]
EXPOSING A CULTURE OF COVER-UP
Dr Graham Bell, Durban High School class of 1964, says he was 14 when he was sexually assaulted by one of his teachers, Harold “Jiggs” Gray.
“I now have the maturity of my 67 years. I have had a whole life and I have coped pretty well. But I still felt completely conflicted.
“I won prizes, but I hated the school when I left. The lack of institutional response to what was happening was not forgivable.”
Bell – who has a PhD in psychology and now lives in Australia – has been the driving force behind the recent public disclosure of the allegations against Gray, who taught at the school for more than 30 years.
Going public about Gray – who he estimates had about 400 victims over the years – has given him release.
“There are many people out there with deep, unhappy memories. They have clammed up, they don’t want to talk about it.
“I hope this becomes a game-changer, both for those who have been deeply hurt and for schools who turned and still turn a blind eye to this kind of crime, fearing reputational damage.”
He said this fear had resulted in some not supporting his open stance.
“One of the old boys said it would completely destroy the school. I was told this was just some 50-year-old hang-up and we should put them aside.
“For me, the paedophilia was one thing. What really angered me was the response of the institution and what it had done to protect him and not us.
“I believed the culture of cover-up had not changed. And I desperately wanted that to change.”
He said after World War II, sexual assaults, sadism and bullying seemed to be accepted at schools all over the world and these were now being uncovered.
“What a time we lived through … and I thought it has to stop.
‘I am still concerned at the attitude of the school. Yes, we appreciate the position taken, but they used the apology on page four of the school communiqué. Why not page one? Maybe they are not as brave as they think they are being.’
The Mercury