Dear Editor,
For the seventh time another teacher at the Vryman’s Erven Secondary School in New Amsterdam has felt the wrath of a society infected by many youths that have no direction as to the paths that they are going in life. The last time it was the acting Headmistress, banged in the head for asking a stranger (a male) to stop playing cards in a Grade Ten classroom and leave the school plant immediately. This time, on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 another senior member of staff (a female) was cuffed in the mouth by a male ex-student of the school who decided to find himself in one of the Grade Nine classrooms interacting with female students along with three other of his colleagues who accompanied him on the trip to the school.
It is a regular habit over the past couple of years for strangers, particularly boys, young boys, drug addicts to visit the school especially during the afternoon hours and during the lunch hour (11:15-12:10) to visit their girlfriends, to make girlfriends, to cause mischief around the school plant, and most recently to beat up our teachers!
But it’s not Vryman’s School alone whereby these modern atrocities seem to be on the rise, but I understand that violence against our educators is happening frequently.
I dare say that it is no coincidence that this problem, once never heard of, has sprung its ugly face at a time when Corporal Punishment (CP) is hardly being used in the public schools. It is a contributing factor to teachers getting ‘beat up’ by druggies and other members of our society.
On the last day of the Easter Term (March 14, 2008) a group of strange boys came rushing in to the above school with buckets of water, ran in to the staff-room and emptied their buckets, wetting all end-of-term records, students’ registers and numerous teachers that were present there at the time (during the PM session of school) in a Phagwah-spree-gone- bad episode.
The school has one guard who is stationed at the gate.
However, these strangers do not enter the school via the gate. That would give their presence away. They choose to enter the school clandestinely aback of the school’s laboratory via the fence around there. They then enter the laboratory which contains three classrooms: two Grade Eight’s and one Grade Nine. A sit-in was held last year after a senior teacher of the school was hit in the head, and the Regional Democratic Council obeyed the demands of the teachers and ordered an extra guard that was placed next to the school’s lab area during each lunch break. This lasted a couple of days, but was discontinued, and with no explanation.
The teacher attacked last week was just doing her job and did not deserve to be physically and verbally abused by the strangers who held her hands behind her back and allowed one of their colleagues to delve cuffs in her. It is totally unacceptable! We demand better security arrangements at this school. The school grounds should be a safe haven for educators not a breeding ground whereby any person or persons can enter at the own whims and fancies and beat up teachers, and for no reason at all. These brazen acts must stop immediately. What an insult this is to the education system whereby strangers are now entering the teacher’s sanctuary, so to speak: the classroom, and beating them up.
What will they do next? What won’t they do next?
Many teachers sometimes turn a blind eye to these elements of our society whenever they are present around the school plant, due to fear for their own safety. In the meanwhile, these elements distract students, create havoc and turn teachers’ lessons upside down, thus hindering the learning process. Teachers must be able to do their job without being fearful for their lives and safety.
Furthermore, in the interest of other learners the school environment must be, at all times a safe place where there is no fear of an attack by strangers; where the curriculum is delivered without hindrances like these elements, who have nothing to do with their lives, visiting schools and making mischief.
A recent survey showed that more and more teachers in the world are quitting their jobs for fear of their lives. Survey has also shown that more of these incidents happen on the school grounds, in the classroom and during instructional time.
Let me give some more empirical evidence: Chicago’s teachers were attacked 1,065 times last year—an eight-fold rise in five years. During the same period, student assaults increased by 500% in the Philadelphia school system, which recorded 116 incidents last year. New York City reported 180. In five months, San Francisco’s elementary-school students attacked their teachers 83 times.
Anyhow with all that has been said I hope that the authorities take this situation seriously and let our educators of the future minds be secure and safe at their place of work.
Yours faithfully,
Leon J Suseran
