Pupil ‘hit, called k-word’ by teacher

THE family of the Gauteng pupil who was allegedly hit, sprayed with sanitiser and called the k-word by a teacher have vowed to get justice.

The Afrikaans teacher at Northriding Secondary School was suspended on Thursday following an alleged racist incident in which she allegedly hit a Grade 8 pupil and called other pupils “baboons, drug dealers and k ***** s”.

Education Department spokesperson Steve Mabona told the media at the school on Friday that initial investigations indicated that an altercation over noise occurred on Thursday morning between a Grade 8 pupil and a teacher.

“The educator is alleged to have sprayed the learner with sanitiser after he left the classroom to report the matter to another teacher in the neighbouring class. It is alleged that the accused educator followed and started to engage violently with the learner, further spraying the learner with sanitiser all over his body and allegedly calling him a ‘k ***** ’,” Mabona said.

The teacher then had another altercation, in the next period, with other pupils. “She allegedly started hurling insults at the learners. We are informed that she called them baboons, drug dealers and k ****** ,” he said.

The school’s principal, Francois Oosthuizen, the Representative Council of Learners (RCL) and other teachers rushed to the classroom and defused the situation. It was decided to suspend the teacher with immediate effect until a disciplinary process had been conducted.

The father of the Grade 8 pupil, who cannot be named to protect the child’s identity, said it was a traumatic experience for the family and other children in the class at the time.

“We are really angry because in 2021 for a 14-year-old to go through such is just a lot,” the father said.

The family expected the school to handle the matter decisively; not only for their child but for the other pupils as well, he said.

“There is a lot that needs to change with the school in terms of how they engage parents, kids and teachers and the culture here.”

The child’s mother said the family would open a case and lodge a complaint with the SA Human Rights Commission. They wanted the teacher to account for her “contentious hate and racism that she stands for”.

Other parents had also come forward to the school to complain about other incidents of alleged racism.

“It’s tragic that there are no actions that followed something so serious and grave transgressions that are happening to our children,” she said.

Concerned parents who were at the school said they were only informed of the incident long after it happened, and in some cases on social media.

A concerned parent said: “The teacher was comfortable to do that and to even follow the child to another class and say it in front of another teacher. It means there is an enabling ground for racism in this school.”

Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said the department was extremely disappointed by the incident, adding that racism would not be tolerated at schools. “Educators must teach and guide learners, not fight them.”