Teacher caned, slapped, threatened pupil: claim
ACHATS WORTH teacher is alleged to have beaten a pupil with a cane, repeatedly slapped him and then threatened to have the boy killed if he told anyone.
Police have confirmed they are investigating the incident, which is alleged to have taken place last Thursday.
“If you tell someone else, then not today, not tomorrow but someday I will get my gang to kill you,” the Grade 9 pupil claims he was told.
The 14-year-old boy, who cannot be named, still sports bruises on his face.
With his parents at his side, providing both counselling and support, he said he was told by the teacher: “You have two options, take a transfer and f*** off from this school or get three strikes and you’re out.”
He was then allegedly assaulted.
“It all started just before 10 that morning,” the boy said. “We had a free period outside near the sir’s classroom and a group of boys threw a stone into the class and he (the teacher) came and blamed us. So he called three of my friends and me and told us, one by one, to go to the class while the rest of us waited at the end of the block.
“I heard some sounds but didn’t think much about it. When it was my turn I went in and he told me I had two options. To me three strikes meant I will have one demerit and two more chances so I said ‘Give me the strikes’ but I was confused when he asked me to grab his table.”
The teacher then allegedly started beating him with the cane.
“He hit me twice on my butt with the cane and I got shocked and looked at him. He then hit my thigh once. He then threw the cane and started slapping me on my face several times. It was so bad because I was screaming for him to stop but he didn’t until a friend of mine, who heard my calls for help, came running into the class.
“I had to be carried to the office because I could not walk and I was crying and shivering out of fear.”
His father said he had received a frantic call from his oldest child at about 3pm.
“He called, crying, saying the teacher had hit him. I was in shock. Immediately I got my wife and we left. But we were not prepared for the condition that we saw our son in. He had bruises everywhere and what’s even more upsetting is the incident happened at 10am yet the school did not bother to call me and inform me. My son sat afraid in the office for hours until school closed. That is not right.
“When I questioned the principal he said he was out of the school the whole day but my son says he was there with him. Instead of contacting us, the school decided to keep the boys in, in the hope their swelling would go down by the time school closed,” he said.
The boy’s mother said: “My son has a hole in his heart and pressure in his lungs. If he started bleeding he could have died because the blood wouldn’t clot. As a parent, how can I rest easy knowing my son has to face this educator? We as parents have not touched our children and we are not allowed to. How can an educator do this to our child and feel nothing?”
The principal said his school did not condone any form of violence.
“The matter has already gone to all authorities so I cannot comment,” he said.
The teacher, who has been on leave since the alleged incident, could not be reached for comment.
Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele confirmed a case had been opened at the Chatsworth SAPS.
Kwazi Mthethwa, spokesperson for the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education, said. “If these allegations are true then we will ensure the perpetrator faces the full might of the law.”
Corporal punishment was abolished in South Africa in 1996, Mthethwa said. “In the recent past we have been able to punish all those found to have administered corporal punishment in our schools.”
Nomusa Cembi, of teacher union Sadtu, said such incidents were on the rise.
“It is quite worrying… We find cases where teachers are hitting pupils or pupils are hitting teachers and it’s concerning. But we also realised it’s not only happening at the school. It’s happening outside in society as well and unfortunately schools cannot escape what is happening in society.”