Durban - A Pietermaritzburg teacher is convicted of assaulting a pupil again in the next five years, he will go to jail for four years.
Raveer Sinanin, 33, was given a suspended sentence by the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court on Thursday for punching and kicking a 13-year-old pupil at Heather Secondary School in September 2012.
Magistrate Chris van Vuuren said the offence was serious. During class, Sinanin had called the teenager to the front for talking and made him kneel. The teacher had then slapped and punched the boy in the face and kicked him in the knee area.
“It was a cowardly act by a 33-year-old teacher on a schoolboy,” said Van Vuuren.
Pupils who testified had referred to the teacher as “sir” in court. It must have been a shock for them to see their “sir” assault the boy in front of them, he said.
Van Vuuren said the evidence he accepted was that the boy and teacher had had a good relationship.
However, Sinanin had tried to portray him as being disruptive, which the court had rejected.
“The complainant must have been shocked, humiliated and wondered why he was attacked by his ‘sir’. It was something that would live with him for ever.”
Sinanin had acted spontaneously and, in a moment of madness, assaulted the teenager. He showed absolutely no remorse. Attempts to mediate in the matter had failed and he had persisted in pleading not guilty.
Van Vuuren said it was clear that there was no purpose in sending him to jail.
The suspended sentence, he said, would serve as a reminder that should he repeat the offence, he would go to jail.
The Mercury