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CONTROVERSY OVER RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS UTTER balderdash is the only way to describe the attitude of Westering High’s SGB and the teachers. The EC Education Department should remove such archaic, racist zealots from the teaching profession before they do any further damage to the children of this country. The South African Council of Educators (Sace) should be informed of this discriminatory drivel.
ATHEIST “PUNISHED for religious beliefs”: strange nobody said anything when our Bible was thrown out of our schools! Last time I checked we are a Christian majority country!
WINSTON LEWIS HOPEFULLY Westering High School is not straining a gnat and swallowing a camel. I sincerely hope their reason has nothing to do with Christianity. God’s word says: “Give none offence neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God.”
NIGEL WAKEFORD LET Westering have a vote from parents and pupils. The rules were there long ago.
OBSERVER TRUE tolerance is needed. But is it possible that the pupils are caught up between dictatorial teachers, parents and a priest? Are they all determined to impose their beliefs? Give the pupils a copy of Richard Dawkins’s
The Magic of Reality or let them watch Fact vs Faith on TED with Sister Joan Chittister. Give them an informed option! The truth is wearing a St Christopher medal, a cross, a rosary or black dot on your forehead will not “ward off negative energy” or make you good or keep you safe! The adults must all act in the best interests of the pupils. The pupils should not be threatened or humiliated or forced to wear the black dot. Nor should they be forbidden to wear it if they so choose.
PAX WESTERING High School has a uniform and rules. Adhere to it or go to a religious school of your own culture.
PARENT PLEASE tell me: has religion or a dot got to do with a child’s education? People seem to be finding fault everywhere. Let us have some positive and happy news.
TERTIA I WAS suspended from Westering High School in 2008 for cultural reasons, a mehndi on my palm. I was treated unfairly and embarrassed by two teachers and the principal. I needed counselling and medication to cope.
FORMER PUPIL THE school and SGB should have researched the issue, before engaging lawyers. What unnecessary negative publicity for the school on such a simple matter.
SYD MY niece had a similar experience at Westering. She was victimised for wearing a Hindu item after a religious ceremony. She had to go for counselling.
RELATIVE “WHERE does reasonable accommodation of religions end?” Each school has its identity which you buy into when you choose to go there. Beards and burkas, hairstyles: the uniform is part of the identity. Go somewhere else if you are unhappy.
CJ
WELL said, R Saptoe, well said!
SUPPORTER WESTERING High School has issues concerning respect for other cultures and religions. Henna was likened to satanistic mutilation. Shame on the teachers who are doing this.
G DISGRACEFUL LOSING BY SUCH A BIG MARGIN EP Kings, what a disgrace losing against the Lions like that and maybe we must blame management as well for picking the wrong players. Carlos Spencer, not being nasty, but have you not got better players that can play and why is Sergeal Petersen not playing in these games as he is very good and plays well?
EP KINGS SUPPORTER SORRY, Luke Watson, you have now reached your sell by date. One game and back on sick leave for the rest of the season with full pay. Carlos Spencer should put his foot down and get rid of you.
A MYBURGH, RICHMOND HILL, PORT ELIZABETH NO THANKS FOR VOTING ON voting day the DA sent SMSes throughout the day reminding us to vote and the ANC was neck and neck in Ward 10. After retaining the ward, not one SMS to thank us voters that it bombarded on the day. Makes one think.
WARD 10 RESIDENT OTHER ISSUES IN WARD WARD 8 councillor Gustav Rautenbach has just sent out a “Focus on Ward 8” e-mail about motorists failing to stop at stop signs in his ward. It would appear that he is selective about law enforcement, most of which is usually traffic related and income generating. It is about time he also attended to various other types of contraventions taking place in his ward with the same enthusiasm as stop streets.
MIKE MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT HUMANIST, more people are murdered or killed in car crashes (not accidents) in South Africa every month than in Gaza this year. Imagine the casualty rate there if both sides abused drugs and alcohol like we do. Let’s look closer to home for solutions first.
TJF, BLUEWATER BAY, PORT ELIZABETH TO Humanist who says that we should “stop Israel today”, you need to wake up. Hamas is a terrorist organisation and they show no mercy even to their own people. Human life means nothing to them.
READER I AGREE with what Tony Ehrenreich is saying: those Zionists who are sending money to Israel for the funding of illegal settlements and the massacre of Palestinians are complicit in these apartheid styled human rights violations and war crimes. This is not hate speech. What Zionists are trying to do is peddle their narrative only and prevent freedom of expression.
NAUSHAD OMAR LET’S hope that all those, including the clerics, who hold marches, vigils and protests over Gaza also do the same for the Christians, Shi’ites, women and children who are getting slaughtered in Iraq by the Islamic militants. I suppose all we will get is a deafening silence.
JACOB DA COMPLICITY IN FAILURE OF EDUCATION YES, Annette Lovemore is correct – the state provides schools and education for the citizenry of this country, so this means the DA is complicit in the failure of education in the EC.
CITIZEN