General Smuts pupils and staff to undergo counselling
The residents of Vereeriniging, where the General Smuts High Smuts High School is based, believe that sadly, most of the pupils at the school will not make it to their 21st birthdays.
VEREENIGING.- A Psycho-Social Support team has been dispatched to the school to provide trauma support and counselling to both learners and School Management Team (SMT) after one of its learners was stabbed and killed on Monday. The school, once a beacon of the Sedibeng, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons.
Sedibeng Ster reported recently that a few months after the school made headlines earlier this year about bullying and gangsterism, the school was once again in the news for the same claims of bullying, gangsterism, and ill-discipline. In addition to these, claims of drug sales and late coming had arisen.
“At the rate they are going they will not make it to their 20’s. Try talking to them about their behaviour (drug use and loitering) and hear the answers. We are afraid of them, but something needs to done. This is our area and almost all of them are not from here,” said concerned Vereeniging residents.
Earlier, the residents had told Sedibeng Ster that many pupils were always late to school and that they found the gates locked, leading them to wander the streets and using drugs on the streets. Upon enquiry about the situation at the school, the GDE said that as part of its interventions, it advised the school to immediately minimize the movement of learners during school hours. A meeting was also called amongst all the stakeholders that included the parents, the School Management Team (SMT) and the local ward counsellor. Certain disciplinary and security measures were said to have been suggested and agreed upon.
This all seems to be not working.
On the death of the learner, the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE said that it is extremely sad to learn about the death of the Grade 11 learner from the school.
“Accordingly, the perpetrator allegedly waited for the said learner at the Street on the way to the Taxi Rank on Monday, 19 September 2022 after school hours. The Emergency Medical Services and the parents of the injured learner were immediately called and, he was stabilised and transferred to nearest hospital. Unfortunately, the said learner succumbed on Monday, 08 September 2022 due to sustained injuries. Subsequently, Our Psycho-Social Support team was dispatched to the school to provide the necessary trauma support and counselling to both learners and School Management Team.”
Police are investigating circumstances surrounding this incident and the SGB has also launched its investigations.
