The Congress of South African Students says it will be shutting down the Curro Somerset West High School on Wednesday.
COSAS is protesting what it calls the school’s failure to act on alleged incidents of racism and bullying there.
It’s believed that a Grade 9 learner at the school has been receiving racially-fuelled threats via WhatsApp from another learner, throughout the year.
And that the student who sent the texts, went on to assault the victim on school grounds earlier this month.
COSAS chairperson, Mphumzi Giwu, says the school has handled the matter with far too much leniency.
“After the victim’s parent visited the school, the Principal promised to look into the issue. After her failure to take action, the learner was present at the netball practise, that’s where she assaulted the victim. But she remains at school”.
COSAS also visited the school Tuesday to call for the alleged perpetrator to be suspended.
But, according to Giwu, the school’s management clearly doesn’t intend to effectively deal with the matter.
“When we sat around the table with the principal. The response she gave us, the arrogance from her and the receptionist, this proves that racism still exists at this school. We’ll also respond with our arrogance, and no perpetrator will remain at school while the victim is at home.”
