Duran - A 12-year-old who was allegedly gang-raped by three pupils in an Inanda school’s toilets will not return to the school, because he is struggling to deal with the trauma, says his mother.
The boy, in Grade 8, was allegedly repeatedly raped by three pupils, who are in their 20s, at Sithabile Secondary School, last month.
The boy’s mother, who may not be named to protect her son’s identity, said the boy was constantly in tears and would change school next year.
He had not returned to school since the incident.
She said she was infuriated by the school’s response to the incident when she first reported it, and said she had to tell her story at a parents’ meeting to get the attention of the school governing body.
“I was just so disappointed that the school governing body and the principal had no explanation for me as a parent when I came to the school.
“They could not apologise or explain to me how this happened… I was disappointed by their response, because they did not show me any care as a mother,” she said.
During a meeting with parents last week, frustrated and angered, the woman revealed to parents what had happened.
“(The principal) is the father and the mother of our children when they are at school, I wanted him to show care, and not just sit there and not say anything,” she said.
“My heart is broken as a parent,” she said.
“I am really worried about my son and he cannot go back to that school. I have to find him a new school because that place will always remind him of what happened to him.”
The woman said the three boys were in Grades 8, 9 and 10 – and said more needed to be done to protect young pupils from older pupils at schools.
“These boys are 20, they are not even in Grade 11 or 12. I don’t know what their intentions were, because they were threatening to attack us, sending messages through my son’s friends,” she said.
Provincial police spokesman, Colonel Jay Naicker, said three suspects aged 20 to 21 were expected to appear in the Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday morning.
“It is alleged that the suspects took the victim to the toilet and raped him. They were arrested for rape and appeared in the Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court on 30 September, and the case was remanded (to Tuesday),” he said.
The principal was approached for comment on Monday, but referred all queries to the school governing body.
The school governing body (SGB) chairman, Doctor Nkomo, said the school was shocked by the incident and had as a result, hired additional security guards to search pupils for weapons. He said they would be monitoring the court case.
“We will have to sit down as the SGB, parents and community to see what we can do to improve the situation. There are plans to bring in social workers, police, religious people and other stakeholders to workshop and channel the way forward,” he said.
Professor Kobus Maree, an educational psychologist at the University of Pretoria, said the school should have immediately brought in trauma counsellors to assist the young boy as soon as they were made aware of the incident.
“The SGB should immediately tell the parents what steps they are going to take against the perpetrators and offer immediate therapy and counselling, because the parents need to know what steps the school is willing to take,” he said.
He said it was “heartless” that the parents had not been consoled and said the education department should send a task team to the school to facilitate actions that would provide moral, financial and therapeutic support to the victim and his family.
Provincial education spokesman, Muzi Mahlambi, said psychology services had been sent to the school and said the alleged perpetrators should be treated as criminals and not pupils.
He said the Department of Social Development was being consulted to assist in offering psychological assistance to the pupil at his home.
“When we allow over-age pupils, we give them an opportunity to access education and it is unfortunate when that right is abused.
“Maybe we have to be stricter in terms of age, but this is not to say all over-age pupils act like this,” he said.
Daily News