Death-school rampage

A JMPD officer escorts his daughter from Vorentoe High School in Brixton where a pupil was stabbed to death by fellow pupils on Wednesday. Police had to be called into the school to restore order when pupils disrupted class when they heard that the alleged perpetrators of the stabbing were released on bail. 020312. Picture: Chris Collingridge 550

A JMPD officer escorts his daughter from Vorentoe High School in Brixton where a pupil was stabbed to death by fellow pupils on Wednesday. Police had to be called into the school to restore order when pupils disrupted class when they heard that the alleged perpetrators of the stabbing were released on bail. 020312. Picture: Chris Collingridge 550

Published Mar 2, 2012

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Pupils went on the rampage this morning and had to be brought under control by police armed with rubber bullets at a school where a boy was stabbed to death on Wednesday.

Emotions flared after pupils at the Vorentoe High School in Auckland Park when they were told the five boys allegedly implicated in the stabbing may be let out on bail.

Classes came to a halt this morning shortly after 8am, when a large group – between 10 and 20 according to witnesses – started smashing windows, writing on walls and disrupting other classes.

Concerned parents began arriving at the school shortly after a brigade of metro police, SAPS officers and an ambulance arrived at the school.

Teachers had been unable to stop the rowdy group and had called emergency services for back up to help get the school under control.

Most of the school pupils loitered outside classes at around 9am, after an announcement from the principal said that classes had been temporarily suspended and teaching would resume only after the situation had been brought under control.

 

It was at about 10am that peace prevailed and pupils were instructed to return to class.

The chaos follows a brutal stabbing on Wednesday in which a Grade 11 pupil was killed just outside school property.

Five pupils from another school were arrested in connection with the crime, and were set to appear in the Newlands Magistrate’s Court this morning.

Pupils and teachers at the school said they believed that it was news that the suspects might be granted bail today that had tempers flaring, resulting in the chaos that shut down the school.

One teacher, who asked not to be named, said that some pupils were still traumatised after Wednesday’s incident, and were acting out because they hadn’t had a chance to deal with their grief and anger.

“But we have had counsellors here all week to speak to the children,” she said.

“It’s not the school’s fault if the boys get bail, but I’m taking my daughter home for the day,” said one concerned parent escorting his daughter out of the school.

The concerned dad said that the rioting pupils needed to understand that even if the murder suspects were granted bail, this would be done by a court of law and was a matter of justice being served.

Percy van Wyk had also come to pick up his son, and said he would be filing a case of assault against the five boys arrested for the stabbing incident, as his son had been injured in the fight that had resulted in the death of a teenager.

Numerous students were seen leaving the school by 10am today. Dozens of police officers, some armed with shotguns and rifles loaded with rubber bullets, continued to patrol the school grounds. Several pupils told The Star that racial tensions at the school had risen since the attack, and that it was because of the difference in the races of the attackers and the victim that students were acting out.

A make-shift memorial had been created on the spot where the young victim had been stabbed.

Efforts to get official comment from the police on this morning’s chaos were unsuccessful and it was not clear whether or not any arrests were made. - The Star

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