Bayview police are investigating an assault case after a Grade 11 Southlands Secondary School learner was assaulted and rolled down a bank by a group of learners, after school, recently.
A video of the incident depicts the learner being brutally assaulted and rolled down a bank while he was being kicked and booted by close to 30 other learners. The learner sustained injuries on both ears, his head, shoulder, back, wrist, fingers and stomach. The mother of the 17-year-old learner, Irene Petesen said that she was traumatised when she saw the condition of her son when he arrived home from school. “We rushed my son to a private doctor. He said learners were throwing erasers in class and one learner who was hit by the eraser assumed that it was him who aimed it at his fellow classmate. My son told me that when he defended himself and said that he did not throw it, it became an argument. The teacher called for the principal who was passing his class at that time. The principal called the learner out of the classroom and spoke to him, thereafter things were apparently sorted. After school, on the same day, my son said that the same learner together with his friends began to assault him while he walked down the driveway for his transport. Another learner separated them and he was able to get into his transport. The next day, I went to school to report the matter to the principal. I was told that she was not in and reported the incident to another teacher who assured me that my son is safe and there will not be a repeat of such an incident.
Petesen added that after school, on the same day, her son was waiting for his transport to pick him up when he saw a group of learners waiting at the gate. “He then reported it to the teacher who took him down to the office. The secretary phoned me to tell the transport person to pick my son up from the car park. He was informed by a learner that his transport had arrived. He said that as he walked to the gate, his transport was not there and a learner approached and asked him to come to the road for a fight, but he refused. He said that within seconds, three boys were behind him and some were in front of him hitting him continuously. My son told me that he tried to defend himself but he could not and he was rolled down the bank from the school premises to the road,” she said. According to Peteson, her son was brutally beaten up with a belt, knuckle duster, grazed by a knife and also beaten with a stick which they broke from a tree.
“The school security guard allegedly came to separate the crowd and he also got hit by these learners. My son told me that a driver passing by stopped and chased everyone. He told him to run back into the school. As he ran to safety, the learners ran after him and tripped him. He thereafter woke up and ran into the office. After taking my son to a doctor and the police station to report the case, I visited the school the next day. The principal said that in order for her to suspend the boys who assaulted my son, she needed to suspend my son as well. I refused for him to be suspended because he was innocent. When I asked the principal why my son would get suspended because the video clearly shows him being beaten up, I was told that he would be suspended for trying to defend himself,” she said.
The mother of two further stated that she is scared of even sending her child to school as such incidents are happening at a place of learning. “The fact that a learner had a knife shows that there has been no searches at the gates and our children’s lives are in danger. As a parent, I think that these types of incidents should not be swept under the carpet but should be dealt with and addressed. I have heard of many other incidents in the said school,” she said. A learner who witnessed the incident said that she is scared to attend school. “School was supposed to be a place of learning, yet other learners come to school to fight. It is my first year in high school and I am severely traumatised. We need searches to be conducted at the gates in order for learners not to carry weapons which can endanger another person’s life,” she said. Communications officer of Bayview SAPS, Warrant Officer Collin Chetty said, police are investigating an assault case. Several attempts to obtain a comment from the principal of the school and school governing body were unsuccessful by the time of going to print.
