“Our role as teachers is not only to give education, but to give social education as well.”
This how Elandspark High school principal Mr Josua du Plessis sees the role of his staff.
In line with his efforts to provide holistic care and education at the school, Mr Du Plessis has partnered with the SAPS to bring across the seriousness of illegal items at schools to pupils.
““Pupils who bring illegal substances to schools must know they will be brought to justice. We need to get pupils in the right direction before they are out of school, because once they are out of school they could be heading to jail, said Mr Du Plessis.
As part of his efforts to guide pupils along the correct lines in life, Mr Du Plessis arranged for the SAPS to conduct a search at the school on February 12.
The search resulted in the confiscation of items such as weapons, dagga and stolen property.
The deputy principle of Elandspark School, Mr J Fourie said, “One of our biggest problems in schools is the combating of illegal substances like dagga. At the end of the day, it has a negative impact on our pupils. Positive pupils create a positive learning environment, so we want the negative pupils that hinder learning out of the system.”
The Bedfordview SAPS communications officer, Sergeant Mduduzi Nhlabati said, “We conducted a school search at landspark High School. We identified a number of classes that had troublesome pupils. The school searches are a part of a programme we as the SAPS, the crime prevention team and the women’s network have with schools. Once a month we go to schools and search the pupils and classes with the goal of eradicating problems such as bullying, weapons, drugs and substance abuse. We want to be in partnerships with schools so that whatever problems are faced by schools it will be easier to access police officials.”
“The search was successful. The deputy principal identified classes of concern for us and we made positive progress in making the school a better place. Some of the materials we found on the pupils included a knife, dagga, gambling cards, cigarettes and stolen products from the school’s charity donations,” said Sgt Nhlabati.
