Principal faces suspension for ‘assault, victimisation’
SOUTH Peninsula High School principal Brian Isaacs is facing suspension by the Western Cape Education Department after “serious allegations”, including assault of a pupil, were made against him.
But Isaacs has accused the department of a witch-hunt against him, and denies the allegations.
He received a letter from the department last week saying he had “allegedly made yourself guilty of serious misconduct in that you assaulted a learner and made yourself guilty of victimisation and improper conduct against learners” at the school.
Because of the seriousness of the allegations the department was considering suspending him with full pay in terms of the Employment of Educators Act.
He was asked to provide reasons his suspension shouldn’t be confirmed by last Friday.
Isaacs said he had received a number of threatening letters from the department over the past 30 years.
This was because his school had opposed many policies and decisions by education authorities, including school closures and outcomes-based education.
“I believe it (the possible suspension) is a scurrilous attempt by the department to silence the school by targeting an individual. Suspension is becoming a means of defaming people.”
Isaacs said he was well aware of the regulations around corporal punishment, and had not assaulted or victimised any of the pupils.
He didn’t know how the department expected him to defend himself since it hadn’t named the pupil who had allegedly been assaulted or said how many pupils had allegedly been victimised.
In a letter to parents yesterday, Isaacs said his attorneys had written to the department denying the allegations against him.
“There is a possibility that I will challenge the suspension in the labour or high courts,” he wrote.
He added that the school was compassionate towards the needs of students “but when they constantly disrupt the education of the majority of students we will discipline them”.
Department spokesman Paddy Attwell confirmed that the department was considering suspending Isaacs, saying the decision would be based on Section 28(2) of the constitution, which states that “the best interests of all minor children are of paramount importance”.
He said the department could not release the names of the pupils at this stage.
“The department will give Mr Isaacs the names when it is deemed necessary, should he need to defend himself.”
Attwell said the case was sub judice, adding that there was no witch-hunt against Isaacs.
Isaacs has made headlines several times over the past few years.
In 2009 he was among the teachers and principals who called for the Common Tasks for Assessment, which were written by Grade 9 pupils, to be scrapped.
The tests were later scrapped by the Department of Basic Education
Last year he contacted the Cape Argus to request that the school’s matrics’ names be published with their results in the newspapers. This was against a decision by the Council of Education Ministers that only exam numbers and not pupils’ names be published.
Last April the Cape Argus reported that Isaacs had been threatened with disciplinary action after his school refused to let a pupil who had failed Grade 10 and then failed Grade 11, to move to Grade 12, against national policy.
In the same month it was also reported that, following a noise complaint, Isaacs had been cautioned by municipal court, sitting at the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court, to use the school’s intercom exclusively for school-related announcements.
In 2012 he led a “gradual takeover” of an unused primary school after his school could not get the go-ahead from the government to use it.
He later reported that the Western Cape Education Department had told him prefabricated classrooms at his own school would be replaced.