DEPARMENT PROBES ABUSED’TEACHER

AN EKURHULENI teacher diagnosed with severe depression after 15 years of alleged emotional abuse and sexual harassment at her workplace will now face charges of misconduct and noncompliance.

The teacher, 39, from a school in Etwatwa, is on sick leave due to depression, she said, as a result of the abuse.

The teacher alleged that the school’s principal and his deputy have been sexually harassing her since she started working at the school as a clerk in 2000.

“The principal promised to alert me to apply when a teacher’s post was available. He started making sexual advances at me. He would call me into his office, touch me inappropriately and ask me to sit on his lap. I refused,” she said.

According to her, this happened almost daily before she eventually reported it to the school’s head of department who advised her to submit to the principal with the hope that he would stop.

The teacher approached the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union and the matter was settled internally. She was later hired as a permanent teacher.

“My life was never the same since. The principal frustrated me. He did everything in his power to suppress me. His deputy began to harass me as well,” said the teacher.

Another teacher confirmed her colleague ’ s problems. “The system is not protecting her. The principal is being shielded by officials from the district office,” she said.

The teacher’s psychiatrist Dr Thabo Rangaka, who started treating the teacher a year ago, said she suffers from severe depression caused by an uncongenial work environment which made her “temporary medically disabled”.

Education department spokeswoman Phumla Sekhonyane said the allegations against the school were investigated and the department found them to be untrue.

“In a turn of events, the investigation report revealed serious misconduct against the educator, and a case of noncompliance was opened against her. The department is preparing a formal charge sheet to serve the educator.”