Editor, allow me to refer to a letter titled ‘Disappointed Parent of Awardee’ dated February 9, as it bears reference to what I need to highlight about unacceptable behaviour at Drakensberg Secondary School (DSS.)

READ THE LETTER HERE: Parent disappointed with DSS awards function

• Corporal punishment was abolished in schools many years ago; however, a new form of punishment has emerged among certain educators at our Drakensberg Secondary School – “diplomatic sarcastic insults”.

If a learner makes a mistake or is slow in understanding a subject matter, certain educators, and even seasoned educators will taunt and insult that learner who becomes the subject of ridicule to the ‘high flyers’ of the class. The insult leaves long lasting emotional trauma to these learners who often go home thinking that they are unworthy and have suicidal tendencies.

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All our children are not privileged to have easy access to the internet and hence have to spend time to manually research information for assignments, etc. So yes, they will definitely be a bit slower than others. I am not by any means finding excuses, merely accentuating a reality. In my days at school, I recall that we had guidance counsellors. People who would help learners, in order to stop educators from this form of bullying. Alas, this privilege no longer exists. I would like to name names, however I fear that if I do, then my child will again be victimised, to the detriment of my child.

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I speak from experience as it has happened previously. If I name the responsible educators, then the principal will have no alternative, but to investigate the matter. Once this process is activated, then the educators responsible will obviously know which learners they have insulted and will in turn (as I alluded to earlier) “diplomatically” victimise those learners. Therefore, I have chosen to express my concerns through this medium as I am aware that other parents have children who are experiencing similar issues with these educators but are afraid to approach the principal out of fear that their children will be victimised.

• I understand that it is important for any school, not only to be competitive, but also to produce top learners every year, to maintain the integrity of the school. Does this then mean that the educators should spend more time with the top achievers and ignore the slower learners?

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I would think that the educators assist the ‘bright learners’ and pay a little more attention to the stragglers so that all the learners benefit and have an excellent overall pass rate. Unfortunately it is sad to note that these very educators I refer to, have favourites and spend more time with selected learners.

• Another disturbing issue that I am aware of is a time when texts books were being distributed. One educator (you know who you are) selected new books to be distributed to the top achievers. He then ‘passed,’ more like ‘flung’, the older, soiled and coverless books to the other learners.

One learner questioned this educator on this and his response was: “You all can’t take care of new books”. I mean seriously, who gives him the right to decide? I had to patch tape and re-cover my child’s textbook to make it useable. At least it’s useable. What about those other learners, that already have language challenges and now textbooks with missing pages? You guilty educators, stop this favouritism and sarcasm and earn your salary by doing your jobs as educators.

It’s your very favourite learners who go around further insulting and embarrassing the less fortunate learners because they know that they will be protected by you if any of them complained about their bullying. I am tired of seeing my child demotivated and in tears. So please stop this now.

Another Disappointed Parent