SADTU urges fairness in Glenvista school fight probe
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union has called for fairness during the investigation into a fight between pupils and a teacher at Glenvista High School in Ekurhuleni.
The teachers’ union's plea comes after a video went viral on social media last week Friday, showing a teacher and a pupil using school furniture to attack each other in a classroom.
The video also shows one pupil throwing punches and another throwing a chair at the teacher.
The union's Nomusa Cembi says such incidents are common in schools.
"Even though the video of the fight is attracting comments from the public, SADTU expects that every person involved should be treated fairly because we do not know the context.
"We understand that the Department of Education bought psycho-social services to counsel the learners and not the teacher. The department must provide psycho-social counselling to all the teachers because they have been affected by the attack on the colleague.
"Just like learners, teachers have rights and deserve fair treatment from their employer.
"The teacher did not report for duty yesterday, but there was no indication that the Department of Education followed up on his condition.
"It is unfortunate that the law and the South African Council of Educators have prescribed sanctions for teachers who participate in physical confrontations with the learners, but these do not exist with the learners," she said.
The Department of Education in Gauteng has launched an investigation into the matter.
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