Cape Town - The family of a teenage girl who was allegedly gang-raped are blaming teachers who suspended her from school without properly informing them.
The 17-year-old girl from Eerste River says she was attacked by three men, one a friend, who took turns raping her on February 9.
The Grade 10 pupil says the previous day, she and two other male friends were suspended and sent home with letters after they were caught with dagga in the classroom.
The teenager claims she was afraid to tell relatives about her suspension and didn’t show them the letter, informing them to come in to see the principal.
Instead she pretended to go to school on the day she was allegedly attacked, and bunked at a friend’s house.
“The two boys and I went to the house of a friend and when we got there two other guys arrived,” said the emotional girl.
“Shortly afterwards my friends went outside and I was left with the three guys, who took off my clothes and raped me.
“Then my two friends came back in and they also tried to do it but the older boy stopped them when he saw that I was not OK.”
The teenager says she was too ashamed to tell anyone of the attack.
“Afterwards I just came home and didn’t tell anyone about what happened. Later that week when I went back to school, I spoke to a school counsellor who sent me to a social worker and that’s how my family also came to find out and we informed the police.
“Afterwards I felt disappointed in myself for putting myself in that situation.”
Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk confirmed that a rape case is under investigation by the Kuils River Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit.
The girl’s aunt told the Daily Voice she blamed the school for not personally informing the family.
“The day the social worker came to us was the first we heard about the rape and how it came to happen,” she said.
“Afterwards I became very angry, if the principal had called me to say come and fetch your child, she has been suspended I would have understood it.
“Instead he sends her home with a letter, she is a child, so of course she was scared to give it to us.
“Had we been informed, she wouldn’t have been at that house with those boys.”
Spokesperson for the Western Cape Education Department, Paddy Attwell, says it is procedure that suspended children get sent home with letters informing their parents of the situation.
Attwell says they will investigate the matter with their district office to find out if proper procedure was followed in this incident.
Daily Voice