No guns within school premises please
I am happy that the department is against this proposed motion and suggested two police officers to be stationed within the school premises.
During the past few weeks, I have been following the debate around the call by the Educators Union of South Africa calling on teachers to arm themselves with guns on the school grounds on social media and the media.
The union strongly believes the government has, through the years, failed to protect the teachers within the school premises.
They demanded tangible support from school governing bodies and two police reservists to be deployed to every school, but said in the meantime, teachers should protect themselves with guns until their demands are met.
The call comes after a teacher at Masuku Primary School was gunned down in KwaZulu-Natal in June minutes after arriving at school.
Closer to home in a similar incident in September 2017, Edalinceba Primary School deputy principal was shot and killed by three men in his office.
All these events happened within the school premises, putting the lives of the learners and other teachers in harm’s way.
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I will not lie, but to a certain extent I do understand where they are coming from, but also have my reservations about this move.
We are all aware of how learners have lost their moral fibre of respecting their teachers; we are exposed almost daily to videos of learners attacking their teachers in full view of other learners, who, some of them, are cheering.
Now imagine if the teacher being attacked is armed with a gun, what are the chances of them using the same pistol to shot the unruly learner, or worse, other learners.
We can also flip that scenario and imagine a learner disarming the teacher and shooting him or her, and because they are trigger happy, opening fire on fellow learners.
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Only that thought brings shivers down my spine; imagine if that was our reality?
I am happy that the department is against this proposed motion and suggested two police officers to be stationed within the school premises.
