Two teachers at Parktown Boys have been given 72 hours to respond to a complaint that could see them being charged over an initiation ceremony that took place at the school in February last year.
Pene Kimber, the mother of a boy who was the victim of the initiation ceremony, laid a complaint against the school and three senior teachers, whose names are known to The Star.
Kimber said in her complaint that the teachers should be held responsible because they were expected to see to it that no initiation took place at school.
She quotes the South African Schools Act of 1996, which says initiation is banned in schools and that educators should "control the actions of learners when such actions may inflict harm to others or to the learner, or violate the rights of other learners".
Kimber said teachers should care for and protect learners from violence because of their in loco parentis (standing in the parents) status.
Two weeks after the initiation last year, Bryan Hillock was suspended from the school's hostel until the end of the first term. Hillock is a former Parktown pupil and a teacher at the school since 2005.
Kimber said she first contacted the Gauteng Department of Education to lay her complaint in February last year, but it was only this week that she received a response.
"It took them over a year to act. I don't believe an investigation took place like they claimed last year," she said, adding that she had set up numerous meetings with the department, but every one of them was cancelled.
Gauteng Department of Education spokesman Charles Phahlane said the department had written letters to two teachers, asking them to explain their role in the initiation ceremony that took place at the school.
"A departmental team that investigated this matter has recommended that possible charges should be preferred against the educators," said Phahlane.
He said the letters were a first step in determining whether any disciplinary action would be taken against the teachers.
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