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NABBED: Lavela Secondary School in Zola North is one of the two schools in Soweto where police confiscated dagga after a raid. Pictures: Matthews Baloyi

CANDICE BAILEY, NONTOBEKO MTSHALI AND KUTLWANO OLIFANT

A 10-YEAR-old pupil was allegedly made to spend the whole day without her trousers; a primary school principal allegedly came to school drunk; and 16 schoolchildren have been found with drugs.

All of this happened yesterday at four different schools in Cosmo City, Lenasia and Soweto. The Gauteng Department of Education said the incidents would be probed.

According to a mother, who cannot be named to protect her daughter’s identity, the Grade 4 pupil at Cosmo City Primary School No 1 who wore her long, grey school trousers to school instead of her school skirt was made to strip down to her panties. She was left wearing a school shirt and jersey for the entire day.

Her furious mother said her skirt was wet from the rain the day before.

When the school day finished, she was forced to go home without her trousers because they had been misplaced.

EVIDENCE: Two pupils and two drug dealers were held after cops found dagga and a drug called nyaope at two schools.

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The pupil’s mother is furious with the principal, Kgomotso Khumalo, who did not call her to fetch her daughter.

But Khumalo denied the allegations, saying she made the pupil stand under the carport only until 10am.

She said the girl was one of about 70 pupils who wore the incorrect uniform yesterday.

“I told them ‘you are dressed like a circus’. What I usually do is ask them to stand under the carport until break at 10am and then they go back to class. I then give them a letter for their parents.”

Khumalo admitted that she did not give any of the pupils letters yesterday, but said she had been disciplining pupils since January about their uniforms. She said there were four girls among the boys, and the excuse by many was that it was raining on Monday.

But the girl’s mother said the school’s head of department (HoD) admitted that this was done to several pupils. When the mother arrived at the school yesterday, she was told the principal was not available. She was forced to wait for two hours before the HoD saw her.

“When I asked if they thought it was safe to make my kid walk around naked, the HoD said there was nothing wrong with that. What if my daughter got raped in the school toilets?”

The mother was told that the school’s phone did not make outgoing calls. The school, she said, did not think stripping the pupils was a violation of rights.

Gauteng Department of Education spokesman Charles Phahlane said no pupil should be humiliated at school. The department would investigate.