Cape Town - A former Eerste River teacher, whose name was indefinitely removed from the roll of educators after he was found guilty of sexual misconduct, this week told three Western Cape High Court judges he had come to his senses and wanted them to allow him back into the classroom.
“I had enough time to think about it,” Arnold Robertson said as he told the court why he did not see any problem with it allowing him to work with children again.
Robertson was a teacher at Stratford Primary School in 2009, when he was first accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour.
Separate hearings were held by the Western Cape Education Department and the South African Council of Educators (SACE).
The department issued him with a final written warning and suspended him for two months without pay.
However, the SACE decided that his conduct was so serious that it warranted an indefinite removal of his name from the roll of educators, which meant that Robertson could never teach again.
In reports compiled after the hearings, it emerged that Robertson told a female pupil he “ smaaks” (likes) her, that he became aroused when she was near him, and that he wanted to have sex with her.
He said this during a conversation with her, in the presence of her friends, in the classroom.
He also gave her his number and told her he had “not expired”.
The girl’s friend testified that she felt so uncomfortable that she asked fellow pupils to help her wash off the number.
She said she feared that he would rape her.
There were also claims that Robertson asked his pupils if their fathers walked around in their underwear, and that he suggested they watch “blue movies” with their fathers and speak about the experience.
The school’s principal, Valarie Coetzee, testified in the hearings that Robertson had been confronted, and admitted to having sexual feelings for the girl.
She also said she felt she had to report the matter because there were similar allegations raised against him a few years before. Robertson admitted he had a problem, she said, adding that he cried throughout the meeting.
However, the 45-year-old teacher claimed during the SACE hearing that he taught life orientation and was expected, in terms of the curriculum, to teach sex education. He claimed that the “blue movies” suggestion was an educational tool, and that he regarded the conversation with the girl as a lesson.
In December 2011, Robertson was informed that he would not be able to teach again.
This week he turned to the Western Cape High Court for relief, asking for the SACE sanction to be set aside so that he could return to work.
He argued before Judge Robert Henney and Acting Judges Kate Savage and Sakkie van Staden that the two sanctions imposed amounted to double jeopardy.
He told the court that, at his age, it was hard to find work.
The judges suggested the parties try to settle the matter amicably, adjourning to allow them to talk to each other.
But SACE counsel Mary-Anne McChesney said Robertson was not prepared to accept the offer to put his name back on the roll of educators provisionally, on condition that he sought therapy.
Instead, Robertson has left it in the hands of the court.
Weekend Argus