Gun threats scare off teachers

2005-03-30 23:08

Millicent Merton

Cape Town - Safety at schools is in the spotlight again after teachers at a Khayelitsha school were threatened with a gun in two separate incidents and are now scared to go back to school.

Three teachers at Usasazo High School were on stress leave during March because of the incidents.

One of them, Marlaine Davey, said she was reluctant to return to school after the Easter holidays because she did not feel safe.

Davey has been teaching for 19 years and has been involved with the Usasazo High School for the past 10. The school moved from Maitland to Khayelitsha in September last year.

Davey says the department considered the savings the move would bring, but no consideration was given to the safety aspect.

Davey was stopped by an armed man about 400m from the school in February this year.

"My first thought was to jump out of the car.

"While I struggled to open the door, the man walked around the car with the gun still pointed at me. I managed to speed off."

Held up by youth

Davey has been on stress leave since then and has applied for a transfer to a school in another area.

Teacher Nareemah Booley had a similar scare earlier this month.

She and a colleague were on their way home when an armed youth told them to get out of the car at a stop street near the school.

Her panic-stricken colleague started screaming while the youth of about 16 calmly took money from her handbag and walked off.

"The street was full of people, but no one did anything," said Booley on Wednesday.

She was treated for post-traumatic stress in a clinic for two weeks. She also does not see herself going back to the school.

Pupils at the school also have been victims of armed robbers and the car of a teacher at a primary school in the area was hijacked recently.

Provincial education minister Cameron Dugmore said during the opening of the new school building in September last year that his department was working on a strategy to ensure safety in schools.

Asked for safety summit last year

Dugmore's spokesperson, Gert Witbooi, said on Wednesday that a long-awaited summit on safety in schools would be held in the new quarter.

This summit was requested in August last year after a pupil at Matthew Goniwe High School was stabbed to death in front of his classmates - allegedly by a fellow pupil.

A pupil at Langa High School was attacked by a classmate that same week.

Since the beginning of the new school year, various similar incidents have been reported.

The department announced that it would canvass 2 000 jobless parents to act as security officers in high-risk areas. There also will be spot searches for weapons from time to time.

- Die Burger