Moeding bans 101 alleged bullies

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Tuesday February 26, 2008 00:00

 

In a hall that has a big blue portrait of Jesus and his disciples, confusion, anger and anxiety reigned among the parents and their children. With each name read out, the parents shook their heads in disbelief.

The students just stared to the front, avoiding eye contact with their parents while others pulled their hats over their faces in shame.

Principal Marcos Maedza regretted that while they had compiled a list of names, some parents had influenced their children not to provide the names but rather to state that they did not know anything. He said that there was no way any student could claim that they had not witnessed any incident. 'The students, more especially boarders, spend most of their time in the hostels, so they should have seen and reported any incidents that they witnessed,' he said.

About 65 students, who did not come with their parents last week after the incident, were also recalled to submit, in confidence but in the presence of their parents, the names of schoolmates who have been ill-treating their juniors. The students had to return home with their parents, while awaiting final compilation as some students wrote the nicknames of the students involved.

According to the principal, the teachers will double check the names and investigate the pseudonyms. The students whose names appear many times on the list would be the final culprits while some who have escaped now could find themselves amongst those already feeling the heat.

Parents whose children were identified as culprits could not hide their disappointment. 'These children did as their hearts desired not what we as the parents wanted. There is nothing that we as parents can do except the headmaster who is best placed to flex his muscles and take any decision he deems fit,' said France Olyn, who travelled from Jwaneng.

He stated that they would not defend their children if implicated. He pointed that the new principal looks set to bring sanity to the school as they (parents) had never been called to the school to identify those who ill-treat new Form Fours. '

Another parent, Setsile Mooketsi from Hebron, expressed her disappointment at her son being implicated in the matter. She revealed that when the students were suspended last week, she questioned her son over the matter and he denied any knowledge except that he had asked a few students to tuck in their shirts.

'Now he tells me that his name has been availed to the school by one student from their home village who wants to settle a score with him. When I collected his report last year, teachers were full of praise for him and I do not know what has suddenly changed him,' she said.

However, many parents hailed the new principal Maedza for taking the first step to curb the ill treatment of the Form Fours. 'This is the first time that we have been called to the school over these acts. My other children schooled here and they suffered at the hands of their peers and nothing was done about it. The old administration  did not care much, this one looks like he is bringing a new dawn to the school,' said Dimakatso Keogotsitse, who had travelled from Mogobane.