Cape Town - Disgruntled Driftsands community members gathered outside Queen’s Park High School, on Tuesday over the alleged bullying of a learner.
A parent, whose identity has been withheld to protect the learner, said the alleged bullying started at the beginning of the year but they were unaware of it as she did not alert them to what was happening.
The family was however surprised when the Grade 12 learner did not want to go to her school, situated at Balfour Street, Woodstock.
Around six people joined what was initially meant to be a protest outside of the school.
After visiting the school and being dissatisfied with the response received from it, the group then sought to open a police complaint at the Woodstock police station over the alleged emotional and physical abuse experienced by the learner.
The parents were unsuccessful in obtaining this and said they would return to the school and the Western Cape Education Department to discuss it today.
“Since this year started, she hasn’t wanted to talk about it. But on Monday it came out that she was bullied by schoolchildren and that there were five of them.
“We went to the school to find out what the situation was, but the school said they are going to do their own investigations,” he said.
“It is not enough, because we were waiting for the school to suspend those kids and then they can do their investigations but they have denied that, so we decided to come to the police station. They were busy posting on WhatsApp, talking about her when she entered the school. They were doing funny things, and also pushing her,” the parent said.
WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said the matter was brought to the school’s attention on Monday and that the alleged perpetrators were in the same grade.
“In response to the matter, the school immediately contacted the WCED social worker and psychologist in the district for advice and support in dealing with the matter. This would include support for the learner and an investigation into the allegations,” she said.
The alleged perpetrators were called in on Tuesday for questioning, as were the victim and her mother. Hammond said this would continue this week.