Christina Goldbaum
ABOUT 300 people gathered in Beacon Valley yesterday to mourn the loss of Jaylin Scullard, a 10-year-old boy who was shot dead on July 15 when playing outside his gate. Jaylin died on the way to the hospital after being shot twice, in the arm and chest.
“He was a peaceful, humble and loving boy,” Leon Murray, Jaylin’s uncle, said.
“He always wanted to do something for other people and could get along with everyone.”
Family and community members spilled out of the church door and into the front garden, as the Alpine Primary Schools Drilling Squad sang and Pastor Dean Fort spoke to the crowd.
“Poverty cannot be an excuse for committing crimes,” he said. “We must protect our children.”
Western Cape MEC for Community Safety Dan Plato also attended Jaylin’s funeral service. According to the principal of Alpine Primary School, Pauline Rix, Jaylin was the first pupil at Alpine to be caught in the crossfire of gang violence and killed. Other pupils, have however, been indirectly affected.
“Many of our children have lost loved ones, mothers, fathers, uncles and brothers who have been killed in gang violence,” she said. “There were even times last year when people were shooting just outside the school’s gate.”
Alpine has put security measures in place to protect pupils, such as security guards at the back and front entrances to the school, fencing around the school, and restricting play to the school’s quad rather than the outer perimeters when the environment is particularly unstable.
“We have a safety policy in place, so when pupils hear shots fired, they know what to do,” she said.
The school also worked with the Trauma Centre in Woodstock last year to provide counselling for pupils.
“There are various side effects to the violence,” Rix said. “There’s a high level of anger in our children which is an outflow of what’s happening in the community.”
Alpine Primary held its own memorial service on Monday at the Shekinah Church in Beacon Valley, where Matthew Jantjies, a classmate and friend of Jaylin’s, gave a short speech.
“If anyone were to ask me to describe Jaylin, I’d say the guy with a bright smile,” Matthew said. “To his murderers I would like to say you stole my friend, and you are stealing my freedom.
“How many more children must be killed before we start doing more to protect our kids? We can’t tolerate this anymore.”
“How many more children must be killed before we start doing more to protect our kids?” he said. “We can’t tolerate this anymore.”
Plato raised concerns about the traffic of firearms in Cape Town.
“Where are our kids getting these guns? It’s not a case of people losing guns or guns being stolen,” he said.
“This needs to be addressed.”