Black Lives Matter triggers fresh racism claims at Penryn College
A petition against racism and discrimination at Penryn College and Penryn Preparatory School has been doing the rounds since late last week and hundreds of current and previous learners of the school have already signed it.
The petition was started by Katekani Ngobeni, who matriculated from the school in 2017 and is now in her third year of studying towards a law degree. She said the school has continued to participate in and allow innumerable acts of racism, harassment and assault.
“These actions are nothing new, even becoming a culture at the school, and have been going on for years, including when I was there as a student at the college from 2013 to 2017. These deeds are known to the school, the current learners as well as alumni. Many enquiries and internal ‘investigations’ have been conducted, but to no avail,” she said.
In her petition, Ngobeni stated that Penryn has a long legacy of successful alumni that it prides itself on. “However, a much more prominent legacy is that of its discrimination. Therefore, we ask all those who have ever experienced or seen racism at Penryn to sign this petition.
“The school is a danger to children of colour, black students especially, and needs to be held accountable.
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“In public they pretend to be inclusive and against all forms of discrimination and insist that they have a zero-tolerance policy on racism, but not once have any of these policies ever been applied. Teachers freely use racial slurs, deny the existence of racism, deny the severity of apartheid and are openly Islamophobic. White students, like their adult counterparts, are also afforded these same luxuries.
“Enough is enough. We do not want to see a new and improved policy that’s only job is to look good in public. We demand that their all-white executive be reformed and the dismissal of all racist staff with immediate effect. We demand an acknowledgement of the pain and suffering endured by Penryn scholars as well as detailed and explicit apologies from the staff and executive. We will not be silenced,” the petition concluded.
Grant Williams, the executive head of Penryn College, said what is happening at the school at the moment was triggered by a post on the school’s Instagram page, where it posted in support of the Black Lives Matter campaign. Penryn is one of several schools around the country where current and former students have in the past week highlighted stories of pain and prejudice experienced at these places of learning, he said.
“The response to these posts made us realise that we may not be as far along on the road of transformation as we had thought we were. But we welcome this opportunity to have a frank discussion with our teachers, learners and alumni. We are in the process of setting up an external commission to investigate the allegations and we have created a special email address where we hope to engage with all parties.
“We will act firmly and decisively against anyone who is found to have breached the high standards we hold our scholars and staff accountable to,” he said.
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In a written reply to Lowvelder, the school stated that Penryn has a zero-tolerance policy towards racism of any kind as set out in the anti-racism policy statement adopted by the school and that it viewed the allegations in a very serious light.
“We thank everyone who has engaged with us and we have, and will continue to respond to those who have contacted us via email. While we recognise and appreciate the hurt and the pain that the social-media posts have caused within and beyond the Penryn community, we ask that everyone would respect the investigation allow it to conclude its important work,” the letter stated.
