Ex-pupil’s bid to sue school fails

A former pupil of Kingswood College in Makhanda lost his bid to sue his former school and a fellow alumnus after a judge found the school had not acted negligently in the incident where his eye was severely injured in a classroom brawl.

Lusakhanya Gora, now 20, of Port Elizabeth, brought the claim, alleging that the school was responsible for his injury.

The reason for his claim was that on February 13 2014 when the incident occurred, a substitute teacher had not been arranged to monitor the classroom.

In his judgment handed down on Friday, judge Jeremy Pickering found that Gora had failed to prove that either the school, the Kingswood College Council or its trust were responsible for his injury.

“It is abundantly clear . . . that there can be no question of the school and its employees having been guilty of gross negligence,” Pickering said.

In his papers submitted to the Eastern Cape division of the High Court in Makhanda, Gora claimed that on the day in question there was no teacher monitoring the classroom when a brawl occurred between him and another pupil, Daniel Moore, 20.

Both of the parties were 15 at the time.

According to Gora he had taken Moore’s pen as a way . . . “of trying to get to know [Moore] ‘so I could hang out with him after school’.”

Pickering detailed what had transpired in a school disciplinary hearing, where Moore claimed he had been bullied by Gora during the two weeks leading up to the incident.

According to Gora’s version, the two ran around the class chasing each other.

The two eventually sat down at their respective desks when, according to Moore, Gora poked him in the back several times.

“Matters escalated and eventually, according to [Gora], Moore turned around, pointed at him and said to him ‘I will kill you’.

“[Gora] pushed his hand away and Moore then punched him in the face,” Pickering said.

These blows, Pickering said, smashed Gora’s glasses, which resulted in an injury to his eye.

Moore denied that he had threatened to kill Gora but conceded that he had warned Gora that if he continued poking him in the back with a pencil he would punch him.

“It was when he was poked again that he turned around and hit [Gora] in the face,” Pickering said.

Initially Moore’s name was not included in the claim but after the insistence of the school for Moore to be included, his name was entered as a third party in the matter.

Pickering found that the school was not liable or responsible for the injury as Gora’s parents had signed and accepted an indemnity clause in Gora’s enrolment contract which indemnified the school from responsibility in incidents of this nature.

“Accordingly [Gora’s] action cannot succeed,” Pickering said.

Pickering ordered that Gora pay the costs of the application on behalf of the school, its trust and council, while Moore’s cost should be covered by the school “as [Moore] joined as such at the insistence of the defendants”.

The reason for his claim was that a substitute teacher had not been arranged