Principal warns learners
Learners who hitchhike expose themselves to dangerous situations and parents are not aware that children rather save their transport money and hitchhike.
SIR John Adamson School principal, Michael Meyers, encourages learners from all schools in the South, to refrain from hitchhiking from one point to another in order to get home.
Three learners from a school in the South allegedly got into a vehicle on Wednesday, November 25. Unfortunately the vehicle was involved in an accident which saw the learners hospitalised. The learners missed their exam the following morning. It is these kinds of unfortunate situations Meyers wants parents to work together to avoid from happening again.
According to Meyers, many learners deceive their parents into giving them transport money, which they use elsewhere, and then depend on hitchhiking to get home. The principal fears that something terrible might happen to a learner who hitchhikes. Every year he also writes letters to parents to encourage them to make sure they are aware of how their children travel from home to school every day.
“These learners already know my vehicle. They run as soon as they see me approach. I am hoping that parents join in and all motorists refrain from lifting these learners. I have seen learners jump on the back of moving bakkies and trucks. My biggest fear is a parent going to a school to inform a teacher or principal that their child did not come back home yesterday,” Meyers said.
The COURIER has forged a partnership with the principal to see learners’ hitchhiking behavior discouraged as soon as the schools re-open.
Meyers encourages parents and anyone who can help to join in and prevent learners from hitchhiking. The partnership will also discourage school transport drivers who overload their seats with learners just to maximise profit, and those drivers who play loud music in their vehicles while they drive learners to school as it disrupts learners from learning early in the morning.
