SAHRC and WCED held dialogues on how to deal with racism and racist incidents at schools and to try and find the root cause. Picture: Armand Hough/Independent Newspapers
With the expulsion of children from school is a last option as learner retention is paramount; a restorative intervention policy is proposed, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) racism dialogue heard on Monday.
This as Pinelands High School learners have been sanctioned with community service among others.
Five Grade 8 learners were precautionarily suspended in July following racism and bullying allegations after they were captured on video footage “selling off” their black peers as slaves.
In the video with the caption “Slavery at schools is crazy”, black learners are caged in what appears to be a storage space while their coloured peers pretend to auction them off to bidders.
Western Cape Education Department (WCED) spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said the School Governing Body disciplinary process into the serious misconduct was finalised last month and disciplinary procedures were followed.
“The outcome of the process and the sanctions have been communicated to the parents and learners involved. The sanctions are restorative in nature and include participating in various workshops and learning programmes, written assignments, as well as community service. The sanctions were designed to help the learners involved gain a deeper understanding of the seriousness of the incident and its impact on others, particularly in the historical context of South Africa. This outcome was supported by the parents and learners involved, including the victims,” said Hammond.
Allegations of racism were also investigated at Table View High School after a white substitute history teacher allegedly used the K-word as part of a Grade 12 history lesson on black consciousness.
Hammond said the disciplinary process, which started in September, was ongoing as hearings have not been concluded.
Speaking at the SAHRC racism dialogue in Monday at the Southern Sun hotel, the commission’s provincial manager Zena Nair said they had received a Pinelands High incident report.
“The WCED has a deadline of Friday to give us a status update on the hearing of the K-word teacher and then in terms of Pinelands we are studying the full report but we can say that certain steps have been taken. Then we will meet the department and school next week to engage and see how the commission will intervene to ensure this does not happen again,” said Nair.
The representative council of learners from the two schools were also given a platform where they indicated they had never experienced racism at the school but knew of some learners who did.
WCED’s Positive Behaviour Programme manager Neville Goliath said: “Expulsion depends on the circumstances that led to the incident, the level of development of the learner.
The sanction of expulsion for racism is a serious misconduct in terms of the code of conduct. The bottom line is if racism has been perpetrated a logical consequence must happen.”
WCED Education chief and districts Specialist Redewan Larney said they believed they were consistent in the way they probed cases at schools after being asked to respond to criticism that the department had double standards when dealing with cases of racism allegations.
Commissioner Tshepo Madlingozi said: “It was important for us to host a systemic kind of intervention because the issues are clearly very prevalent and we don’t have all the answers.
What was clear today is that this is a societal issue and cannot just be solved by schools or parents. We need a multi sector collaboration. There is also a need to stop sweeping things under the rug and deal with the challenges despite how sensitive they might be.”
Cape Times