Police have sent a specialised unit to a Cape Town high school after reports that pupils were practising satanic rituals, such as drinking their own blood and drawing upside-down crosses on school property.
Mitchells Plain police confirmed they had sent in their social crime prevention unit to run workshops with a group of children and their parents at Tafelsig High.
Community Police Forum spokesman Mogammet Fazloodien said he had found out about it when a parent had come to him for help.
Reports suggested that children at the school were drawing inverted crosses on their clothes, books and school benches.
Grade 8 pupil reportedly said they cut their arms to drink their own blood.
School principal Rushda O’Shea did not return phone calls on Tuesday.
Police spokesman Jerome Voegt said their social crime prevention unit had gone to the school to run workshops with the parents and children.
Fazloodien said the discovery had opened up a “can of worms” at the school. The police and a church have been called in to help.
Glendale High principal Achmat Chotia said he dealt with a similar incident two years ago and warned that children’s behaviour changed.
He was now educating parents on the tell-tale signs which could lead to satanism.
Chotia said schools often did not want to admit that their pupils were involved in satanic activity.
Cape Argus