‘We are sorry,’ say the police to emotional learners
Emotions ran high as students from Spark Riversands High commemorated Child Protection Week with various acts they had prepared during character quotient lessons, including speeches, poems, a play, and a musical performance.
“We are sorry. Police and community members, we have failed you.” This apology, from Sergeant Thandeka Mthembu, from Midrand Police Station, during an awareness campaign at Spark Riversands High on June 4, was what the learners of the school needed to hear as the nation observed Child Protection Week, running from May 29 to June 5.
As part of recognising Child Protection Week, Mthembu’s apology struck a chord, leaving most of the learners in tears. Through poems and performances, the learners expressed their feelings, revealing a side of themselves rarely seen in the hallways of their school.
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“The apology hit home for a lot of scholars. The fear of reporting [a crime] is the biggest problem we’re facing in society. If I report something that has happened to me, I’m acknowledging that it has happened, and that deep hurt, I think, affected a lot of the scholars today,” said school principal Karmanie Govender. “It makes me emotional to see my kids break down, because, I pass them in the hallways, every day, and they’ve got a big smile. I don’t know their stories personally, but I think, today, when it hits home for most of them, it makes me think that we don’t really know what’s going on beneath the surface for a lot of these scholars.”
This is the first of many awareness campaigns that the school is going to host going forward. Govender said, the point of the initiative was also recognition of their partnership with the men and women in blue. “Just acknowledging our scholars are our children, and we are here to protect them, and that’s what child protection week is. June is a very big month for the youth. As South Africa, we have a deep history.”
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Learners were also educated about what could land them in juvenile prison, the facilities and programmes that police have to cater for their needs, and reporting corrupt police officials.
The initiative ended with a question and answer session, that got most of the learners expressing their confidence in the country’s police force.
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