Africa-Press – South-Africa. A Western Cape teacher has been fired after being found guilty of sexual misconduct for kissing pupils and touching their vaginas and buttocks, among other offences.
He was also found to have told a teenage pupil she would “be pregnant one of these days”.
The teacher, who was the deputy principal at a school in Mossel Bay, was found to have assaulted six pupils.
They comprised 13- and 14-year-old girls and boys.
He was dismissed after the incident was reported to the Western Cape Department of Education.
The teacher took the matter to the Education Labour Relations Council, claiming his dismissal was unfair.
However, arbitrator Alta Reynolds found him guilty of six charges.
The teacher was also arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting the children and is currently out on bail.
According to the evidence before council, he made unprofessional and unacceptable comments and told a pupil she would be pregnant, lifted a pupil’s dress, touched another pupil’s private parts, and told her he could do what he wanted.
It heard the teacher refused to allow a pupil to leave a classroom to undress, insisting she must undress herself in it.
The council said he made himself “guilty of sexual assault” by kissing a pupil and touching another pupil on her vagina and buttocks.
The teacher denied the charges, saying the pupils were lying.
During cross-examination, Reynolds said, the six pupils testified to what the teacher had done.
“Learner A testified that when the employee said she was going to be pregnant, she said nothing and just looked at him. He spoke to her in a normal tone. Nothing had happened in the class to make him say that.
“The employee was teaching out of a textbook and came and stood by her and looked at her. She asked him what he was looking at when he uttered those words, whereafter she left and went to her teacher’s class.”
She further explained:
“Learner C, who was 14-years-old [at the time], said she was here because the employee did wrong things last year, which he should not have done.
“The employee did wrong things to her in that she asked one day to go to the bathroom because she had sprained a muscle, and he refused and told her to go and sit down.
“She was in a lot of pain in her leg, and the bandage pressed and gave her a burning pain.
“She wanted to loosen the bandage with her hand and put her hand inside her pants, but it was difficult to do. That is when her friends tried to sit around her to cover her.
“Her friends covered her so the employee could not see things he was not supposed to. It was the top part of her left leg above the knee, which was sore.
“This incident made her feel uncomfortable as he was older than her, and she did not know him. As a teacher, he was very strict and hit and scolded a lot. He had hit her over the buttocks with a cane to ask how far she was with her work.”
Reynolds explained that the remained three pupils also recounted their experiences with the teacher.
“Learner D, who was 15, said he was here because the employee bit him on the nose. The incident happened last year in the computer room. The whole class was present.
“The employee made a joke, and the whole class laughed. He then came closer and asked him why he was laughing and grabbed him at the front of his chest, bit him on the nose and then kissed him on the same place, being the nose.
“When the employee bit and kissed him on the nose, he felt bad because nobody else had ever done that to him.
“Learner E, who is 14-years-old, said he was here to lay a complaint against the employee. It was communicated to them in the hall one day that the weather was bad. The employee came out of the office and kissed him and bit him on the cheek.
“He was standing outside with his teammates and two coaches who told them that the rugby game was postponed.
“Learner F said she came from the previous period and went to the computer room. One teacher asked her to make coffee, and she went to make the coffee, and after she made the coffee, she went up to the classroom to fetch her bag.
“The employee called her to the table and said what she had done was not going to happen again, and he touched her vagina on top of her skirt. They were the only ones in the classroom, and no teacher assistant was present.”
According to Reynolds, the teacher should have known his conduct would have been frowned upon as unacceptable and inappropriate.
She said the teacher should have led by example and created a safe environment to protect all pupils in an environment where sexual abuse and harassment in schools were becoming an escalating problem.
Reynolds added:
In analysing the evidence and arguments, she said she was satisfied with the evidence.
“I am accordingly satisfied that the employer had succeeded in discharging its duty to prove the employee’s guilt on the charges of sexual and improper misconduct on a balance of probabilities for the reasons already described above.
“The overall sanction will be that of dismissal. In light of the best interests of the child being paramount, no other sanction than dismissal would, in any event, have been appropriate since the employee can, as a result of his conduct, no longer be entrusted with the emotional and physical safety and welfare of learners placed in his custody.”
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