No jail if boy, 13, guilty of shooting principal

A pupil who has been charged in the shooting of his school’s principal allegedly had intentions to also harm two other teachers, said Gauteng education MEC Matome Chiloane.

On Monday, Chiloane visited the Primrose Primary School in Germiston, after a grade 6 pupil allegedly shot the principal last week.

The principal, according to the Gauteng department of education, was allegedly shot by the 13 year old in the school’s staff room after an earlier interaction.

It is alleged the firearm belonged to the pupil’s parent.

Chiloane told the media on Monday teachers were “shaken” by the incident as the boy, who was questioned by the police, is believed to have planned to shoot three people at the school.

He confirmed the pupil’s appearance in the Germiston Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

“The law says when a child is under 14, the decision lies with the magistrate as whether the child goes to juvenile and etcetera,” Chiloane said.

The Child Justice Act states that “a child who is 10 years or older but under the age of 14 years and who commits an offence is presumed to lack criminal capacity, unless the state proves that he or she has criminal capacity”.

The legislation also says a child under 14 may not be sentenced to imprisonment, which “should only be used as a measure of last resort and only for the shortest appropriate period”.

The MEC also revealed that the boy’s father had been arrested in connection with the incident and “will be charged with negligence”.

Chiloane said there would be a process from the provincial department’s side “until the child gets reintroduced back into the system”.

“The child has to go for a lot of rehabilitation until we are all comfortable because we have seen with our own research that children tend to have repetitive behaviour,” he said.

“It’s either they learn from the incident and say this is not right … or they feel they can do better and be better prepared next time.

“So, we are not certain [and] until we are comfortable, the child would have to go under a very stringent rehabilitative process and then we [will] take it from there.”

On whether the pupil will be expelled should he be found to have committed the crime, Chiloane stressed he would need to be assessed by professionals first.

“There needs to be some form of authorisation or approval from one of the professionals, whether be it a social worker or a psychiatrist, who actually gives us assurance that this child has gone through a particular restorative process and can be accepted back into the system, as opposed to just moving the child from one school and then searching for another.

“If you do that, the child does not change and takes their behaviour into the next school and spoils another school until they are ultimately outside of the system entirely.”

Regarding security measures, Chiloane pointed out the school was about 500m from a police station and was already working with an armed response security company.

“They have said this is a good school. They’ve never had problems except burglaries, vandalism or theft after hours.”

He confirmed the provincial department would put interim safety measures in place for the next few months “until we feel the situation has stabilised”.

The MEC later stated the pupil had allegedly targeted his class teacher, deputy principal and principal, in particular, because they alerted his parents about his poor academic performance.

“The parent was supposed to come and the child didn’t tell them. Now when he was interrogated, he said every time his parents were called, they would punish him at home. So he didn’t want to tell his parents.

“On the school’s side, they have done their part in terms of follow-ups, taking the necessary steps to protect the child and also make sure that the child performs in school.”

Chiloane would not elaborate on the type of punishment the pupil faced: “I don’t have specifics, but you can assume perhaps there’s a bit of abuse taking place.”