Sans Souci Girls High School learners during assembly on Wednesday. PHOTO: Supplied by Western Cape education department.
Cape Town girls’ school Sans Souci has issued a statement regarding the video in which a teacher can be seen slapping a student across the face after the student shoves her at the height of an altercation between the pair.
This comes after a strongly worded letter, reportedly written by the students of the school, was shared on social media condemning the student who got slapped as a bully “who makes her issues everybodys issue” [sic].
The alleged letter also labels the student who leaked the video “a backstabbing pupil” and stated she was due for punishment after her “betrayal.”
The letter also alleged the video was edited in an effort to make the teacher look bad and stated that the authors of the letter were on the teacher’s side as the pupil who got slapped “deserved it”.
Speaking to EWN in the wake of the incident going viral, provincial MEC spokesperson Jessica Shelver also alleged the video that had been circulating had been edited and did not show the full sequence of events which led to what social media users saw.
A few of the school’s learners staged a protest in support of the teacher during Wednesday morning’s assembly.
The protesters held up a banner saying, “It’s not about race. Teacher is not racist.”
Image: Facebook
We reached out to the school for comment and Sans Souci claimed to have offered both parties counselling in the interim.
“We are well aware of the extremely disturbing incidents that occurred yesterday in one of our classes and have initiated the remedial processes as prescribed by the School’s Code of Conduct and within the framework of the South African Schools Act,” said the school in a statement.
They went on to state that both parties involved would be dealt with in accordance with the law and in a fair and transparent process.
However, classes and extra-curricular activities at the school will continue as normal.
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