Cape Town - A St George’s Grammar School teacher was threatened and robbed in a school computer lab on Wednesday as pupils and parents arrived for the first day of the school year.
Principal Julian Cameron, who declined to identify the teacher beyond saying she was a specialist primary teacher, said the man struck her a sharp blow on the head with an object that resembled a firearm, and fled with some of her personal possessions. The teacher was left bleeding in the lab.
The intruder was spotted by one of the school’s security guards, who tried to arrest him, but he threatened the guard with what the guard assumed was a firearm and fled.
The intruder was spotted shortly afterwards at a nearby house in Mowbray, but by the time the police arrived he had gone. The school has given police security camera footage of the intruder. Police suspect the man’s weapon was not, in fact, a firearm.
The teacher was treated in hospital and later discharged.
“We are happy to report that she is at home and recovering,” said Cameron.
He said that last year the school had been investigating improving security and access control: “This incident however has underlined the need to expedite these initiatives.”
Cape Argus