Cape Town - South Peninsula High School principal Brian Isaacs is appealing the decision to dismiss him following a disciplinary hearing instituted by the Western Cape Education Department.
Isaacs told the Cape Argus on Wednesday afternoon that his legal representative was about to submit his appeal to Education MEC Debbie Schafer.
Schafer’s spokeswoman, Jessica Shelver, said Isaacs had been given five working days to lodge his appeal, and had until 11.59pm on Wednesday to do so.
By the time of going to press, the ministry couldn’t confirm whether the intention to appeal had been received.
Last week, the department indicated the presiding officer had found Isaacs guilty of two charges of disrespect or abusive or insolent behaviour towards officials, and not guilty of issuing an unlawful instruction to a staff member.
The officer found him not guilty of disrespect or abusive or insolent behaviour towards his employer, and guilty of giving false statements concerning his employer, in terms of the Employment of Educators’ Act.
The officer’s recommended sanction was dismissal.
Shelver said that once the intention to appeal had been received, Schafer would consider it and reply timeously.
She said there were no stipulated time-frames within which the MEC had to consider the appeal.
Isaacs said that should he be dismissed, he would be able to walk away with his dignity intact.
He repeated an earlier statement that the department had a vendetta against him. Over the years he has publicly criticised several decisions taken by the department.
The department has denied this claim.
Meanwhile, alumni of the school have started an online petition in support of Isaacs.
Titled “Brian Isaacs should not be dismissed”, the petition is addressed to the department’s spokesman, Paddy Attwell.
In the petition, former pupils state: “While we are not in a position to comment directly on the charges laid against Mr Isaacs, we believe the subsequent action taken is incommensurate with Brian Isaacs’s life of service and his many contributions, not only to education, but to the lives of thousands of students who passed through South Peninsula under his care.”
They said that while Isaacs was often under duress from the old regime, he had insisted that a first class education was possible “and with little or no resources he consistently delivered a high level of instruction”.
“We believe the actions taken against Mr Isaacs present an undignified finality to a career that was in fact stellar. Any such action would undermine Mr Isaacs’s role as a leading educator, as well as his contributions to many lives.”
By late Wednesday afternoon the petition had 160 signatures.
Some of the comments on the online petition included: “I am an ex-principal of a Cape Town primary school and can fully understand the commitment and frustrations of Mr Brian Isaacs.
“Our education system is failing the community it is supposed to uplift.
“More educators should speak up and take a stand against a failing system.”
Another comment read: “I have 3 children at South Peninsula High and Brian Isaacs is the reason I sent them there, strict rules and disciplined school with dedicated teachers.”
In recent months, the department has brought a string of charges against Isaacs while he has also made several appearances in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court, where he is accused of transgressing noise nuisance by-laws related to announcements made over the school’s PA system.
Cape Argus