Kgari Sechele teachers live in fear of students

In the wake of the mayhem that ensued at Kgari Sechele Senior Secondary School last week, it has emerged that teachers at the school live in fear of their students.

So dire is the situation that last Friday when The Midweek Sun (MS) team visited the school several staff members declined to be interviewed on what goes on inside the school, saying they were afraid of the backlash they could receive from the students who own and use an assortment of weapons to subdue the teachers into submission.

One teacher exclaimed: “I cannot be seen to be talking to you after they saw you alight from a clearly labeled newspaper vehicle. I am not ready to be maimed while I have a toddler to look after. Anything they read in your paper, whether there are names or not, they will conclude I was the one who said it.”

A teacher who was attacked by a student amidst the disruptions vehemently refused to entertain any approach from the MS crew, with those close to him later revealing he was still traumatised by what he had experienced. By Friday afternoon, five students were in police custody after being connected with the violence that had ensued at the school on Tuesday. With investigations continuing at the time, Molepolole Police District’s Officer Commanding Senior Superintendent Kevin Mookodi could not rule out that more arrests would be made.

Teachers who were able to speak after some pressing made reference to the jailed students, saying they were scared of what would happen “should those hooligans be released to come back to school.” Evidently disturbed by the prevailing air of insecurity within the premises of the school, one female teacher opened up: “This is not a school; everyone from the school head to the groundsmen will tell you the same thing. What we deal with here is anarchy of the highest order. In this school, you do not tell a student what to do and what not to do – they beat you up. I would be glad to be out of this place any day, and I won’t care where I am transferred to.”

A non-teaching member of staff who also spoke on condition of anonymity added: “What teachers and other staff members have to go through in this school is abuse. Teachers here go through the worst form of abuse from these children and I wonder how learning and teaching take place in the classroom. As for female teachers, the poor souls loathe the classroom for fear of the problem students who sometimes even make sexually suggestive gestures towards them.”The school head Lapologang Kolagano, speaking to the Molepolole community on Thursday morning at the school, echoed the polluted atmosphere presented by the teachers there, saying almost all of them wanted out, and that he feared many more coming in on transfer or new appointment would not want to work in the school.

He was addressing the village elders from across the leadership divide, among them the tribal and local government authorities, legislators, parents and the police. The school, even the police confirm, has long been supplying a lot of rogue students for the police station’s holding cells. The teachers there narrated an incident in the school where even the school head himself was not spared the disrespect the students mete on the school community.

In this one episode, the school head who was on rounds to ensure there was order in the school found some boys loitering outside the classrooms around the Design and Technology workrooms. When he had succeeded in getting the students inside a nearby D & T department room where he sought to reprimand them, they snatched the office key from the door, shoved him deeper into the room before quickly closing the door and leaving him locked inside.

A ring leader in the incident reportedly threw the key up the office block, and then went on to block the entrance into the D & T enclave, daring anybody who would attempt to rescue the school head and get him out of the office. With the fear-struck staff members failing to disentangle the school head from his entrapment, the police were called in to intervene, and eventually succeeded in setting Kolagano free.

At the Molepolole Police Station, some police officers revealed they were at their wits end regarding the several indiscipline cases they have had to attend at the school.

The officers shared incidences of the students being arrested for various transgressions ranging from petty theft to beating up people at entertainment spots as well as for selling drugs. The sentiments were buttressed at the Thursday meeting by Superintendent Mookodi who complained that the school’s students were always at their holding cells instead of being at school to learn.

Teachers who were able to speak to the MS team laughed at each other as they recalled and narrated how their colleagues had to jump over fences on Tuesday as they ran away from the marauding student gangs that were wielding all manner of weapons including knives, spades and catapults, threatening the lives out of the teachers they accused of punishing their colleague. “It’s not really a laughing matter,” one teacher interjected. “It’s just that as we speak now, we see some form of humour in the manner some of our colleagues scurried away for dear life. Some found refuge in storerooms and a tuckshop, locking themselves there until the situation had calmed down. Right now there seems to be relevant calm because the ring leaders are in police custody. The situation may play itself up again on their return.”

Molepolole Police Station Commander Superintendent Charles Mbengwa revealed yesterday that the five students had already been released after questioning, and teachers confirm that some of them were spotted at the school on Saturday where there was a fair. Mbengwa, who said investigations into the matter were still ongoing, yesterday told The Midweek Sun that they were still looking for more of the students who vandalized the school’s administration block. “Some of them are still at large.

We are looking to bring them in for questioning so as to make conclusive findings towards our investigations,” he said, adding that it was not the first case the Molepolole police had to deal with. “I am new in the area but I have information that it is a problem school. We are worried about the school and we are currently working on something that can help us mould them into well-behaved children. But we need to first get the necessary information from all those involved to come forward and assist us get to the bottom of the problem. They have to tell us why they beat teachers, where they get the knives and other weapons they carry in school, as well as who supplies them with drugs. We will not relent until we get to the root cause.”

The station commander confirmed that the teachers at the school were living in fear of the students, and that the school always calls for assistance whenever there is a discomfort relating to the learners. The Ministry of Education’s regional director Benson Rauwe, who yesterday was said to be in Letlhakeng on an official errand, last week assured the teachers that they would be protected, and promised that stern action would be taken against those found guilty of any crime committed in the school.