Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Free State Department of Education is investigating allegations of racism, bullying, and assault at Welkom Technical High School following claims that a teacher failed to intervene during a fight.
The fight was captured in a “harrowing video which is circulating on social media”, said department spokesperson Howard Ndaba.
The video, which News24 has seen, shows three pupils involved in a fistfight in front of a female teacher.
In the video, two pupils can be seen grappling on the floor, with a white boy choking a black boy.
While the view of the fight is obstructed in much of the video, the female teacher can be heard telling the pupils to stop fighting only once the children are on their feet and the black child is punching the white child.
“It is alleged that during the brawl this teacher was biased towards the other learner. The department condemned all acts of ill-discipline, racism, criminality, violence, and bullying in our schools,” said Ndaba.
According to Ndaba, the “sordid incident” happened just a week after five boys at the school were involved in a fight.
“The five have been found guilty by the disciplinary committee of the school. They were sanctioned three consecutive days cleaning the school.”
After seeing the video, Free State Education MEC Makalo Mohale expressed shock at the “penchant for violence at schools”.
“School safety is a societal issue. We need to pull all stops and work together as parents, SGBs, teachers, learners, and other stakeholders to stop violence at our schools,” he said.
The department had dispatched officials to investigate the incident, and based on the findings, disciplinary action would be taken, Ndaba added.
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