Former and present learners accuse Trinityhouse Little Falls of racism

Trinityhouse Little Falls, an expansion of the main campus, Trinityhouse Randpark Ridge, was established in 2012 to provide quality education to learners in the Roodepoort and surrounding communities.

The school indeed excelled in providing the best education, judging by its matriculation pass rate over the years. While the education side of things can be applauded, the issue of alleged inequality, racism and discrimination seems to be a pillar in the school’s culture that lacks progress.

This after former and current learners at the school took a stand and spoke out against issues of racism which some learners suffered at the hands of some teachers and fellow learners at the institution. The vanguards of this movement, Tumelo Noah and Kamogelo Sepamla, both alumni, recently started a WhatsApp group and Google document for past and present learners at the school to pen down their inappropriate racial experiences in a bid to improve the school’s approach to this serious matter.

A copy of the Google document with all the experiences, reflections or complaints were forwarded to the Northsider.

The majority of the complaints highlighted incidents of microaggression, inequality, racism and failure by the school to address these pertinent issues. Kamogelo reflected on his past experience at the school.

“White boys would openly make racist remarks in class, in the presence of the teachers, and that would go without any repercussions of any sort. Personal achievements would often be undermined by racist comments. White students would frequently speak in a ‘black accent’ and would misappropriate our culture. This would happen in the presence of a teacher but the learner/s would not be reprimanded for this extremely offensive act,” he recalled.

Former learner Tamlyn Greaver recalled how a Geography teacher removed her from among white learners in class and placed her with black learners at the back. “I sat with them in front because they were my friends, but the teacher decided to move me,” she lamented.

A present learner, who wished to remain anonymous to avoid victimisation, said: “Often instead of just telling a group of black learners to keep it down, staff would include racist remarks such as ‘this is not a shebeen'”.

Tumelo, a former learner disappointed by racial dynamics and transformation at the school, also reflected on her past experience pertaining to her natural Afro-styled hair. “I experienced unfair judgement on my hair the same way other black girls did,” she said.

She highlighted that a teacher told her to her face that she disliked her hair and suggested she changed it as it was ‘untidy’. Tumelo also reminisced on the prejudice a group of 2019 matric girls suffered. They were repeatedly labelled as dramatic, radical and loud by white teachers and students.

As a way forward, the duo compiled a document with detailed demands to the school, among them the following: A public and formal acknowledgement and apology; re-evaluation of the racism policy; diversification of staff members; introduction of race workshops; clear systems of voting; introduction of a learner-voted diversity committee; and communication of transformation plan and changes made thereafter.

ADvTECH’s Brand Sales and Marketing Manager, Marthie van der Wat responded: “For the last couple of weeks, our school has been placed under the spotlight by past and current learners who raised concerns about racism and discrimination in our school. We acknowledge that there are individuals and groups within our school community who are carrying a disproportionate burden. We sincerely apologise if we have not always listened with empathy when these issues have been raised,” she explained.

“It is our desire to respond meaningfully to this call for action. We want to leverage diversity in order to become more engaged, innovative, and connected. To this end, Trinityhouse Little Falls is embarking on a process to assess the gaps in the inclusivity in our school. Though some of these gaps have been highlighted by our past students, we do not want to assume that these are the only gaps that exist or that these are the only issues that require our attention,” she added.

Marthie explained that they have contracted an independent company called Culture Intelligence Africa to facilitate workshops in reviewing and examining the school’s code of conduct, language and uniform policies among other issues, as the school intends to respond meaningfully to this call for action.

This is to be done via online platforms labelled Focus Group Discussion to enable past and present learners to interact with the school about issues at hand.