By Buziwe Nocuze
The family of a 15-year-old learner is blaming the school for their daughter’s failed suicide attempt after she was named as allegedly having sex with another learner in the boys’ toilets.
The girl’s parents are angry with the school for interviewing their daughter without their consent after the incident.
Scrolla Africa is not identifying the school to protect the girl’s identity.
The girl’s father said the school failed to follow the right procedures when dealing with the matter.
Speaking anonymously, the father said: “We were told that someone saw my daughter and the boy having sex in the boys’ toilet. That was on Monday [last week] but the school failed to reach us as the girl’s parents.
“I was shocked to hear that my daughter was questioned at school [on Tuesday last week] without our presence. Why would the school decide to do that without us?
“Our contact details are there [with the school], they should’ve contacted us, or tried other means to reach us before interviewing our daughter without our consent.”
The father met with the principal last Wednesday to express his anger.
He said the school had failed to protect his daughter and that she tried to take her life at the school on Friday.
The father was told that his daughter had swallowed painkillers and he rushed her to hospital for treatment.
“My daughter tried to commit suicide by taking painkillers because her name was already known and some learners were talking about it. We were surprised at why the school decided to release our child’s name while they were still investigating the matter,” he said.
The father said he was not trying to defend his daughter but wanted the school to do things properly.
“I don’t have a problem with the school investigating the matter. The issue is how they handled it. When we asked who saw them [having sex], the school said the learner who reported them didn’t see their faces. He just heard noises and saw a girl and a boy having sex at the toilets.”
Bronagh Hammond, Western Cape Education Department spokesperson, said the school alleges that they tried on several occasions to contact the parents using the contact number provided to the school.
However, the mother’s number was unavailable.
Hammond said, “The school was not notified that the number would be temporarily unavailable even in emergencies” and that the father had “allegedly acknowledged that the school made attempts to contact them on that number”.
The father, however, told Scrolla.Africa that the school had his number as well as his wife’s number, but failed to contact him.
Hammond said additional measures could have been put in place by the school in terms of ongoing support and counselling for the girl learner and that if this was required it could be arranged via the school.
Pictured above: School classroom.
Image source: File
