More reports of school beatings, violence

FOLLOWING yesterday’s article in the DFA regarding a teacher who allegedly encouraged two pupils to become involved in a fight, more reports of violence in schools and corporal punishment have surfaced.

The Frances Baard cluster community policing forum (CPF) yesterday condemned corporal punishment that is allegedly being inflicted upon pupils at a primary school in Windsorton.

Video footage of girls and boys being beaten with a plastic pipe has been circulating on social media and has been brought to the attention of the CPF, who claimed that pupils were regularly being subjected to beatings at the school.

The video shows pupils being hit with a plastic pipe in front of the classroom. Another pupil was allegedly hit on her hands by the same educator on Tuesday.

Shaun Brand, from the CPF, said that while corporal punishment was a criminal offence, parents were afraid that if they reported the matter to the police their children would be victimised.

“We strongly condemn the alleged abuse of pupils at the school. It cannot be that a place of learning and teaching has been turned into a place of torture and abuse.

“We view this in a serious light and put our trust in the MEC for Education to quickly deal with those responsible. We will also engage the Department of Education, Childline, Cosas and our CPF structures to develop awareness campaigns for all the schools within our cluster.”

In another incident, Operation Wanya Tsotsi spokesperson, Pantsi Obusitse, raised the alarm over school violence that is spiralling out of control in the Roodepan and Homevalley areas.

He claimed that pupils were attacking each other with sharp objects and weapons on school grounds.

“We sent out patrols to monitor the situation because we cannot wait until someone is killed before any action is taken,” said Obusitse.

Spokesperson for the Department of Education, Geoffrey van der Merwe, confirmed that a fight broke out at Pescodia High School before school started on Monday.

“The pupils involved caused pandemonium as teachers, fellow pupils and security officers intervened by separating the culprits.”

He added that attempts were made to contact the parents of the pupils involved.

“The pupils, however, claimed not to know their parents’ contact numbers or places of work. As per the code of conduct policy of the school, and in the presence of police officers, the pupils were