PARENTS of children at Hellenic Academy in Harare have raised racism allegations against the school authorities.
They told NewsDay that as a result, one of the “racist”
teachers had since been disciplined after using derogatory words in reference
to black students and staff members.
In another incident, four white students are alleged to
have attacked a male black pupil and broke his arm last month, resulting in the
child arming himself with a knife to defend himself. He was suspended for the
incident, while his assailants walked scot free.
The incident led to protests by other students at a sports
day event recently.
A senior teacher at the school (name supplied) was
subjected to a disciplinary hearing after one student reported him for calling
him a “kaffir” during lessons.
Parents had initially accused school authorities of
protecting the elderly teacher. Responding to questions from NewsDay, school
head Suzanne Joscelyne said the academy did not take issues of racism lightly,
and was engaging stakeholders to deal with all suspected cases.
She said a stiff penalty had been imposed on the elderly
teacher, who was also ordered to apologise to the affected student.
On the fight between black and white students, Joscelyne
said: “The incident was not even a big issue because it ended there. No one
even reported that, but it only became an issue when the student sent an audio
on social media threatening the others. He also posted a video of a knife he
wanted to use to attack the others.
“He was put on a plaster and told by his doctors to stay
home until he recovers. On Thursday, he came to school and took the knife out of
his pocket. Prefects had to intervene and the issue was not about the initial
fight, but somebody making a threatening message. He was not even suspended
initially. We just said he needed some time out.” Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment