Johannesburg - The Hyde Park High School teacher accused of sending pornographic images to one of his students also had several conversations over social media sites with other pupils – one of which included a joke about orgasms.
The 37-year-old teacher – who has been arrested and is out on bail – has not tweeted since October 1, but his previous tweets were still up on the social media site on Tuesday morning.
“My teacher (name omitted) is too Gangster to be Gangster, #Swagg #DontFuckAround,” the boy tweeted in July. The teacher then replied: “They must know.”
Two days later, the two had another brief conversation over Twitter.
“A relationship based on sex will only last as long as the orgasm,” the pupil said.
“Make sure then they’re multiple, eh?” the teacher replied, to which the boy said: “Exactly.”
The teacher was arrested after the mother of a pupil at the school laid a charge following a conversation with him during which she pretended to be her son over the instant messaging platform WhatsApp.
The teacher had unwittingly sent pornographic images and suggestive messages to the 16-year-old pupil’s mother.
A separate conversation appeared to have taken place between the teacher and another pupil on Twitter in July.
“My favourite teacher (name omitted) didn’t follow me back so I’m going to ignore him at school,” the boy said, also in July. “No you won’t,” the teacher replied.
On Monday, the same boy tweeted: “Ayy my school teacher got arrested for sexual molestation :(.”
The teacher’s Twitter bio reads: “Inclusive educator, youth mentor, building digital classrooms. Reading for masters.”
The allegations of sexual abuse at the school have angered Women and Men Against Child Abuse, who have said a better screening process should be implemented by the Gauteng Department of Education.
“Surely somebody saw this (the inappropriate tweets) a while ago?” asked the organisation’s advocacy manager, Germaine Vogel.
“Once again we have yet another educator involved in a sexual crime in our schools.”
Gauteng Education spokesman Gershwin Chuenyane said they were investigating “all aspects” of the matter, but could not comment on the Twitter conversations or allegations that the teacher had been suspended only after eight days.
“We can’t speak about the merits, there is an ongoing investigation,” Chuenyane said.
The teacher – who cannot be named before he pleads in court – could not be reached for comment on Tuesday morning as his phone was switched off.
David Drink-water, the chairman of the school’s governing body, could also not be reached for comment as he was out of the country, but the school published a statement on their website regarding the incident and how it was dealt with.
“The school’s governing body is of the view that the acting principal, Manolis Vogiatzis, has dealt with the matter as expeditiously as possible and followed the correct procedure in immediately reporting the matter to the Department of Education and the chairman of the SGB.
“There is a pending investigation and the SGB therefore regards the matter as sub-judice, and the SGB will not further comment pending the finalisation of such investigation.”
The Star