Lately, I have been thinking about the boys of Parktown Boy’s High School, in particular the boys abused by their teacher.
If you haven’t read the book Brutal School Ties by Sam Cowen I highly recommend that you do. This book made me sick to my stomach, I think this is because as parents we have all probably felt helpless at some point.
Collan Rex, former water polo coach at PBHS pleaded guilty to 144 charges and was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
He was only 22 years old at sentencing. Twenty-three years seems like nothing compared to the damage done to these boys, they will not forget in 23 years, and they will remember for the rest of their lives.
The shocking thing about this case is the fact that so many boys were abused by one teacher at one school until one of these boys had had enough.
The fact that this abuse was normalised is sickening. The abuse didn’t happen behind closed doors or late at night as one might expect, this happened in the open, for all the boys to see, it was happening to everyone, so it was normal behaviour.
Collan Rex was a former PBHS student and he speaks to Sam about the abuse he endured whilst he attended this school. The abused becomes the abuser.
Not only did these boys experience sexual abuse from their teacher and other boys but they also had to endure physical and mental abuse from their very first day in grade 8.
To join this brotherhood they had to tolerate this pain and they knew not to talk about it as ‘snitches get stitches’.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated situation, I just read an article about a boy who committed suicide because he was also abused by his teacher.
When we drop off our kids at school we expect them to be safe, how do schools allow these types of incidents to happen? For PBHS it seems that it was part of the history of the school, they were making men from these boys, or in the case of Collan Rex, they created a pedophile.
How do we protect our kids from these monsters?
We as parents need to check in on our kids, has their behaviour changed, is anything going on? And just hope that they don’t become the victims we read about.
And stop normalising bad behaviour!
About the author: Monique Botha is a divorced mother of two and has been living on the South Coast for five years. She completed her higher certificate in criminal justice and is in her final year of completing her bachelor’s degree in criminology. She believes in lifelong learning and is proof that one is never too old to make your dreams a reality.
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