Klipspruit West Secondary School is embroiled in a bitter battle between parents and teachers.
Concerned parents and residents in the area have highlighted a number of issues which they believe are affecting the school’s performance.
An indaba was held at the Saint Ives Primary School Hall on September 6 to provide residents with a platform to make their voices heard.
The School Governing Body (SGB) presented the agenda for the meeting and several key issues were brought to the fore.
Among the most alarming was that pupils arrived at the school in a state of intoxication and had to be escorted off the premises. Allegations of racism from black teachers towards coloured students was another issue parents felt needed to be addressed.
A parent, Nicolene Jooste recounted an incident in which a teacher purportedly told her son, who is a student at the school, “Your coloured mothers are dirty pigs standing at the gate with dirty gowns and gossiping.”
The list of infractions by students ranged from bunking classes to loitering in the area or sitting outside classroom. Reports of students leaving the school grounds to purchase dagga and returning to imbibe the drug on the property during school hours stunned the assembled parents.
The meeting concluded with parents and pupils from the Learner Representative Council (LRC), calling for Sallie’s return as principal.
According to pupils, “There was no other principal like Mr. Sallie. There has never been another principal like Mr. Sallie who knew every pupil by name and saw the potential in all of us irrespective of the drug problem.”
