Sad lessons from teacher abuse case

MANY readers would have been surprised by comments printed on this page yesterday concerning the arrest of a Durban teacher for allegedly sending nude images to a 14-year-old pupil.

These commentators felt there was nothing wrong with a teacher having a relationship with a pupil – “So many students are involved with older guys. I don’t see why people are making a big issue about it. Why is this so different?”

Others felt the pupil was also at fault – “She was also texting back. She did not tell her parents.” And “she is big enough to know right from wrong”.

Others were more forthright: “The girl is not a victim, finish and kla (sic)”.

We decided to publish these opinions to demonstrate the extent of the problem facing the country in addressing gender-based violence.

At a time when several incidents of violence against women and children have made headlines, it is concerning that people, least of all women, would condone a grown man worming his way into the life of a child.

It is unfortunate that they would blame the child for the adult’s actions.

Yet these are the attitudes which prevail in some sectors of society.

At the age of 14, the pupil concerned is still coming to terms with her changing body and the onset of hormones that accompany the teen years.

In these circumstances, it can be expected that she would be flattered by the attentions of an older male, a fact seized on by hundreds of teachers to engage in inappropriate relationships with pupils young enough to be their children, and a situation the Education Department seems powerless to arrest.

Fortunately, other readers set matters right, one saying “My heart is so heavy. Have we lost our moral compass? Why are we making a fuss? Teachers have been marrying students for years. Does this make it okay? What have we become that we can turn a blind eye?”

What we have become is inured to the sexual and other violence meted out to women and children, to the extent that we are comfortable blaming victims for being raped and murdered.

At the other end of the spectrum we have MenAreTrash trending on social media, with women relating their experiences at the hands of men – many so awful that even a landfill would reject such men.

Where education campaigns have failed to change men’s attitudes that they “own” women and have rights over their bodies, it is incumbent on the state to help the victims – by not further victimising them, and making it easy for them to report crime and to testify in court – and to punish the guilty with suitably harsh sentences.

Unless drastic action is taken soon, the list of names to be added to those of Karabo Mokoena and Courtney Pieters will simply continue to grow.