School accused of racism

Parents threaten legal action

A DURBAN school well-known for its rugby culture has been accused of racism after pupils recruited from the Western Cape because of their rugby prowess were allegedly labelled “filthy coloureds” by staff.

The pupils said they were also accused of being disrespectful because of their type of Afrikaans and wanted the school to be more tolerant of their cultural differences instead of punishing them with menial tasks.

The parents said they had warned the school of possible legal action, but the school said the parents were playing the race card after the pupils had tested positive for drugs.

The group of parents representing eight boys, four who have already left the school, said the issues had been going on for years.

Four of the pupils who are in matric live in the school’s hostel.

On Monday the school conducted a drug test after staff who lived on the premises reported that they had smelt the scent of marijuana.

It’s alleged that drugs were found following a search and out of 13 pupils tested, the school said they received six positive results. Those who tested positive were the four boys from the Western Cape as two local pupils

A disciplinary hearing is scheduled for Friday.

One boy’s mother said she feared that the results were manipulated.

“I saw the test results of two white boys who tested positive for drugs and I contacted the parents to ask what they were going to do. To my surprise, they said the school told them their sons were clean. How can that be? Our kids are saying they did not use drugs.”

The mother said it was hard living in a different province from her son and that some of the parents were expected to arrive in Durban tomorrow morning to meet with the school authorities.

“They don’t want us on school property so we are having the meeting at the airport. First, the boys were accused of sexual harassment and now using drugs.

“It feels like they are trying to make our kids’ lives hell,” she said.

Last year a female pupil accused two of the boys of sexual misconduct but, following an investigation the school’s governing body concluded that there was not enough evidence to support the accusations.

Both boys have since left the school and were allegedly met with difficulties when applying to new schools.

The parents said they were outraged as their futures were marred after they were stigmatised as sexual deviants.

The father of one of the four boys who left the school flew to Durban at the time.

“The school threatened to throw all the boys in jail. The children were terrified because they knew they were innocent. At that point the kids had already complained about how they were being treated so we were suspicious and then we found out that this learner was racist towards our kids,” he said.

The father said that some of the boys were injured during a rugby tour to Namibia and required medical treatment.

“They were hospitalised and treated but when it was time to pay the white boys were sorted, but a coloured father was stuck with a medical bill of over R40 000 which the school should have handled. The hospital said they received no feedback from the school.”

The chairman of the school’s governing body said they had a zero-tolerance policy on racism, bullying and discrimination.

“It disturbs me that the school is accused of racism. That could not be further from the truth. Everything that we do, we do in the best interest of our learners. The school is not racist.”

An executive governing body member said the medical bill issue could have been the result of an error on the part of the hospital or medical aid.

He said the pupils in question were known to be troublesome.

“There have been many occasions where the boys have been out of order. One day they did not like what they were served for breakfast and threw the food and plates across the room.

There have been other instances where other pupils have complained about the boys.”