Teacher badly injured in booby-trap ‘prank’
The 'prank' could quite easily have had fatal consequences.
SCHOOLCHILDREN reportedly spanned a wire booby trap at head-height across the road leading to Margate Primary on Monday afternoon, badly injuring the head sports coach who was riding home on his motorcycle.
“I’m absolutely furious,” said coach Andre Leach, “I count myself lucky to be alive.”
Mr Leach was thrown off his motorcycle when he struck the wire which caught his mouth, wrapped around his head and badly lacerated his face. He was also bruised in the fall and his cell phone was smashed.
His doctor confirmed that if he had been riding any faster and the wire had caught him around the throat, the injury could certainly have been fatal. Any higher on his face and he could have been blinded.
Two Grade 7 pupils are alleged to be involved, but it is not sure whether they were actually targeting Mr Leach or were just copying a stupid and malicious prank they had seen on TV.
A charge of assault has been lodged with the SAPS.
“I don’t think I was their specific target as several cars hit the wire before i did and there was a severed bee-sting aerial lying in the road,” said Mr Leach. The booby trap was set near a bend about 50m outside the school’s main entrance, on the road leading to the Margate police station.
Margate Primary’s headmaster, John Reid, said he was not allowed to talk to the media, but assured the Herald that all official protocols were being followed.
Mr Leach said he had been teaching at Margate Primary for 10 years and certainly did not want to bring the school into disrepute.
“This happened outside the school and I think it is important to make the general public and the powers-that-be aware of what teachers are having to cope with at the moment,” he said.
A parent said: “This incident is particularly shocking as Margate Primary is regarded as one of the iconic schools on the South Coast with an excellent reputation. It is a pity that the actions of one or two bad eggs have tarnished an otherwise fine institution.”
Last week the Herald reported on the George Mbhele School being closed for a week after a pupil threatened another with a gun.
The school only later found out that the ‘weapon’ was in fact a toy, but teachers were too scared to return to work and demanded better security at the school. Previously, a pupil had also been caught with a knife in their possession.
“It’s just getting worse,” said another teacher. “The older pupils really frighten me. If one scolds a pupil for doing something wrong, the malevolence on his or her face is sometimes obvious. Sometimes I have shivers down my spine when I turn my back.”
Teacher unions are calling for tighter security controls at schools, even to the extent of searching school bags for weapons.
The Herald interviewed several teachers at various schools about their current concerns, but they were reluctant to go on record.
“It is drummed into us that ‘what happens at school, stays at school’ and the Department of Education would certainly frown upon anyone breaking that rule,” said another teacher.
The Herald made several attempts to reach various spokesmen from the Department of Education, but in vain.
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