GLENVISTA – Their Constitutional right to education has resulted in the Gauteng Education Department placing two learners, implicated in the viral online video showing an assault on a teacher at Glenvista High School, into new schools.
The expulsion of the 14-year-old grade 8 learner responsible for the assault and another learner, who had captured the incident with a cell phone and distributed it, has been welcomed by Gauteng Education MEC Barbara Creecy.
The footage was viewed more than 20 000 times on YouTube and made national headlines.
The expulsion was recommended by a multiparty disciplinary committee, who found the grade 8 learner who beat his teacher to be guilty of assault and bringing the school into disrepute.
In the video the 14-year-old boy can be seen in full view of a class of learners, kicking and hitting the teacher, Mr Jacobs, with a broom and some of his classmates egging him on while the aggressive boy yanked, kicked, punched and proceeded to hit and throw a broom at his teacher.
“F**k him up bra”; “Go get him, go get him bra,” said the amused group of pupils as they picked up the weapon used to attack the educator. The attack started inside the classroom after Mr Jacobs found the boy had not done his homework.
The Director of Pupil Affairs at Glenvista High School, Mr Coetzee, confirmed that both learners had been expelled from the school as a result of the disciplinary hearing that started in September 2013 with the support of Gauteng Department of Education officials.
Mr Coetzee also noted: “There have been no problems at the school”, and concluded that education is the school’s first priority.
Gauteng Department of Education Spokesperson Phumla Sekhonyane did not disclose the name of the schools where the two expelled learners started this year, but said: “In cases like these we place learners at alternative schools, because of the constitutional right to education. Yes, the learner was expelled at Glenvista, but we’ve placed him at an alternative school.”
