All rights of passage serve as a gateway for progress and offer opportunities for lessons to be learnt.
The ’40 days’ phenomenon is a celebratory period that signals the final countdown of learners’ time in school uniform. The commencement of this final phase is often marked with pranks and light mischief as each generation hopes to leave behind a story to tell. Learners from two high schools pushed the limits of excessive behaviour, lunging headlong into destructive criminality on Thursday, August 12.
At West Ridge High School, four learners were arrested and one was left injured after the Public Order Policing unit was called in to deal with a rowdy mob. According to police, a group dressed head to toe in black and wearing an assortment of masks, terrorised the streets around the school, hurling rocks at private security and police, and even jumping on a police vehicle.
At nearby Hoërskool Roodepoort, 32 learners have been linked to a WhatsApp group that was attempting to coordinate a lengthy ’40 days’ campaign. Titled ’40 days of terror’, the WhatsApp group’s participants are believed to be linked to boxes of fireworks and homemade explosives confiscated by police at the school. Police vehicles were damaged by Roodies learners as they filled nearby streets, creating wild disruptions.
Roodepoort Police spokesperson, Captain Juanita Yorke, confirmed that a case of common assault has been opened in connection with the incidents, and warned learners against any continued violence. “We are investigating information connected to the WhatsApp group and we will have a zero-tolerance approach to criminality in and around schools in relation to ’40 days’. Don’t turn a fun day into a run day because if you start running we will catch you,” warned the Captain.
Both schools have been approached for comment yet none has been forthcoming.
