Staff members at the Morris Isaacson Secondary School are taking matters into their own hands to ensure that their school is a safe and conducive learning environment.
This is done through the school search that is conducted every morning by staff, as pupils school bags are checked for any weapons and illegal substances.
The staff also check if pupils have the proper books for learning, to ensure that they are ready to study for the day.
School principal, Steven Khanyile said: “ The stuff found on pupils was way less than what police found last week.
“The policing also works for us because it helps in minimising bullying in the school.
“Currently it is only the staff searching pupils daily, however, we had invited our parents to be part of this initiative and they have not yet come through.”
Khanyile said during these searches the staff also confiscates hats, cell phones as this is an agreement they have with the parents.
He said they further have random searches during the day where they visit classrooms with other teachers to check for cell phones on pupils.
The school has also put new systems in place which are doing well according to the principal.
He said: “Our pupils movement is less this year as they no longer go to different classes, but now they are stationed in one classroom and the teachers go to them.
“This way it is easy to deal with those pupils that at bunking class and we can trace if pupils are being taught by the teachers since we have registers for each period.
“We also use a card system which shows if a pupil has permission to be out of class as when they are found outside during lessons they must produce a certain card by the period teacher.”
Khanyile said though some of these systems are working well, they are have not been fully successful in completely eliminating drugs; hence they will continue to fight this problem in their school.
He said they have restricted some playgrounds so as to monitor movement of pupils.
