Centurion school ordered to re-enrol ‘very muscular’ student

A high court judge has ordered a Centurion high school to re-enrol an “unusually strong” schoolboy as a pupil so that he can complete his matric year.

The schoolboy applied to the High Court in Pretoria for an order after the school refused to re-enrol him.

He claimed he was “bullied”, unfairly expelled and then re- fused re-entry but the school said he was “unusually strong for his age”, had “violent outbursts” and they suspected he was using steroids.

Judge Johan Louw yesterday ordered the school to enrol the boy as a scholar for his final year of studies.

He rejected the school’s insistence that the boy was bound by an undertaking by his father to enrol him at another school in exchange for a “clean” transfer card.

The judge said it was clear the boy had never agreed with his parents and wanted to complete matric at the same school. He was not bound by his father’s undertaking and had a right to be enrolled.

The boy maintained the school had not followed prescribed rules when it recommended his expulsion after a disciplinary hearing he attended and then refused him re-entry despite the fact that the education department had not confirmed his expulsion.

His divorced parents were also not properly notified of the disciplinary hearing or his expulsion.

No other school in the area had space for him and his father could not afford a private college.

The head of the school’s discipline committee said in court papers it would be irresponsible to allow the boy back onto the school grounds as he had a long history of disciplinary problems and some of the students and teachers were afraid of him.

The straw which “broke the camel’s back” was an incident when he threw over a desk, injuring another pupil, after which his teacher laid a criminal charge against him.

Although the boy insisted the teacher had provoked and bullied him and denied that he was using steroids or drugs, the school said steroid or drug use might explain his “uncontrollable violent outbursts” and his “very muscular” appearance.