While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Special Assignment or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out. 

BLACKBOARD UNDER SIEGE 

FENLEY: - In parts of the country, schools are under siege as neighbourhood violence spills over into the classroom. Some children carry guns and knives and are not afraid to use them. It’s led to the injury or death of many learners. Our schools simply cannot cope. 

UPS: - VOICER - This is the body of 11-year-old Dane Darries. Today his mother is burying her only child. Dane was found brutally murdered in the toilets of his primary school. His tragic death sent shockwaves through the community of Lotus River in the Western Cape many had seen the school as a safe haven for their children. Dane is yet another casualty of the violence that is plaguing our classrooms. It’s a countrywide problem. Learning is being threatened by too many senseless killings.  

PRE-TITLE: BLACK BOARDS UNDER SIEGE 

UPS: - VOICER - Stephen Road Primary is an ordinary government school on the Cape Flats. Dane Darries was a Grade four pupil here. After first break, he lined up with his class. But as the other learners filed back to their desks he slipped off to the toilet. Ten minutes later he was found bleeding to death by another pupil. He had been stabbed fourteen times. The child who found him asked not to be identified.  In the panic that has ensued, he has become a scapegoat for people out to find a culprit. His family now fears for his safety. 

UPS: THE WITNESS- I just went to the toilet and I saw him in the mirror. I didn’t recognize his face. I didn’t recognize his face and then I run out and there was another boy outside and I tell him he must stay outside I must go and call a teacher. I feel sad, very very sad. 

UPS: - VOICER - Dane was a happy eleven year old.  He was an only child with lots of friends.  Everybody seemed to like him. 

UPS: - HANNAH DARRIES; MOTHER - When they came to fetch me they told me that there had been a small accident at school. When I got there, they didn’t tell me anything. That night on the news I saw that Dane was stabbed fourteen times.

 

UPS: - VOICER - A month after his death, the police have still made no arrests. Lessons carry on as normal for Dane’s classmates but fear stalks the corridors. Often learners will wet themselves rather than go to the toilet.

There is a sense that any child here could have been the victim.   

UPS: - EDWARD BARKER; PRINCIPAL: STEPHEN RD PRIMARY - Because there is nothing forthcoming as yet to who is responsible, that fear is still with in myself and the school, because although we talk to our learners, what guarantee can I give. 

UPS: - VOICER – In the past two other children from Stephens Road Primary have been murdered not far from the school. The statistics are frightening last year there were almost 90 cases of assault at schools in the Cape Metropole and in March alone there have been eleven. Hannah Darries holds the school responsible for the murder of her only child. She entrusted him to their care, and they failed.   

UPS: - HANNAH DARRIES; MOTHER – I feel rage just the way Dane died on the school, in the toilet. Where’s the prefect? I mean they are supposed to have that things like that.  

UPS: - VOICER – When Dane died, the grounds were not properly protected.  The outside fencing and gates had been vandalized the school was still waiting for the Department of Education to authorize repairs. So it was easy for someone to enter or leave the school unnoticed and to put learners and educators in very real danger. Now, guards protect the gates and anxious parents keep watch over the premises.  For Dane Darries, it is too little, too late.  And he is not the first child to have been killed at school. Many youngsters are armed and dangerous and teachers are not equipped to deal with them. In nearby Athlone, Marewaan Blankenberg was involved in a fight that broke out between two groups. The teachers couldn’t sort it out after school, the fight erupted again. Allegedly three boys held Marewaan down, while two others stabbed him.  

UPS: - AMINA RAJAP; AUNT - I say they should have kicked him or hit him they never should have stabbed him to death. And the way it was so brutally done. And to me it is so unfair.  He was only fifteen years old. He was so full of life. 

UPS: - VOICER – Lee-Roy Samuels was shot in this school stair well in Ravensmead. He was being shown a gun smuggled into school by a group of friends, when it went off. The school was unaware of the gun so were helpless to prevent his death. They put up this cross as a tribute to him.   

UPS: - MR JOSEPH BOUMAN; PRINCIPAL - you have the pain inside of you, you experience pain. And you have that feeling that you have failed a boy, you have failed a child. You try to you feel disappointed actually that something like this happened at your school.  

UPS: - MR PETER SAMUELS; FATHER - Lee Roy was a people’s person he was a very friendly boy and helpful. He would do any body any harm. A thing like this shouldn’t have happened to him. 

UPS: - VOICER – His father has kept the school uniform that he died in. 

The death of a child is a terrible experience for any parent. But when it’s as senseless as this, it’s difficult to accept. Even more so because it happened in a place where children should be safe.  

UPS: - MR PETER SAMUELS; FATHER - The safety at schools I can say it is getting out of hand somebody need to do something about it. And there I keep government responsible  

UPS: - VOICER – But school violence isn’t confined to the Western Cape. Thembinkosi was shot in the back of his neck by a boy who brought a loaded gun to school in Tembisa Gauteng. It wasn’t the first time he had been threatened with a weapon at school. 

UPS: - THEMBINKOSI MAJOLA; LEARNER - My condition is that I am a quadriplegic. I am paralysed from my chest down. I can’t use my body. I can’t use my fingers. I am using these gloves, they help me to push my manual chair and I can move my arms. I can’t move my body. I need help. I feel bad and I do get depressed sometimes and if I do compare how I was before and how I am now it does really hurt me. Cos at school there are other boys who are able to walk and they do sometimes play soccer and I used to play soccer. It makes you very more depressed and you start thinking that there is no reason for you to live. 

UPS: - VOICER – These are tragedies that throw a spotlight on safety at our schools. 

UPS: - HANNAH DARRIES; MOTHER – You know, you will never believe how I feel. It’s so unbelievable. You read in the newspapers. It always seems to be happening to other people, never to me. But now it did happen to me. 

AD BREAK 1

 

UPS: - VOICER – Hanover Park, Cape Town.  It is early morning and children are on their way to school.  Many come from homes crippled by poverty, abuse, gangsterism or drugs. Many kids carry these problems with them.

So schools can’t remain immune to the ills tearing at the fabric of society.

 

UPS: - NARIMAN KHAN; SAFER SCHOOLS: WESTERN CAPE - If you have a very violent community then it is expected that this will spill over into the schools. And learners imitate what they see outside and they duplicate that kind of behaviour in schools.

 

UPS: - VOICER – Until a few years ago, schools were caught in the cross fire of rival gangs. But since their activities have gone more underground, so have the problems at schools… but they are no less severe. Drugs and weapons still find their way into schools, and fuel conflict and aggression.

 

UPS: - ARCHIE BENJAMIN; PRINCIPAL - We find all kinds of dangerous weapons at school practically on a weekly a daily basis knives, scissors, long knives from home, even toy guns, and we find these weapons mainly from the junior group, the grade 8, 9, 10 mainly from them and it seems to me that they use these knives so that they can protect themselves.

 

UPS: - VOICER – Lighters are used by learners to smoke tik or methamphetamine. On the Cape Flats, addiction to this drug is growing faster than anywhere else in the world especially among adolescents. Tik is undetectable and highly addictive.  It produces a characteristic rush. It also banishes insecurities and gives kids the confidence they don’t normally have. But it also keeps people awake for days and they can get fearful and paranoid. Huge numbers of learners use this drug on a daily basis. In the early mornings, teachers often notice children under the influence they smoke it at home before coming to school.

 

UPS: - ARCHIE BENJAMIN; PRINCIPAL - Drugs aggravate the whole issue of violence at schools it just makes things worse because these kids do not know their reality so for them to stab somebody is nothing means nothing or to go over to being aggressive happens within seconds.

 

UPS: - VOICER – A major problem that haunts the Cape Flats is gangsterism. Gangs supply most of the drugs and most of the weapons here. And they actively recruit school kids. One of the most powerful of these gangs is the Americans

 

UPS: - ROGER FONTEIN; GANGSTER - The gang are well dressed, they got money and they nice takkies nice clothes so the kids take one of these gangster as a role model. Sometimes these school children have uncles, or brothers, who may be gangsters.  Many of the rival gangs take their revenge on these small school children. Their families are worried because these little children carry a knife or steal their brother’s gun from home, and take it to school.

 

UPS: - VOICER – To get to school children have to move through different gangs’ territory. On the way they may be victimised by rivals. So many carry a knife for protection. This school is in Belhar on the Cape Flats situated in a high crime area.  The razor wire that surrounds it can’t keep out the violence. It’s under siege threatened not only by the gangsters who lurk in on its borders but by the aggression of many of its learners. The day we arrived at the school, one learner had just stabbed another boy. Continually bullied because of his small size, he decided to fight back. In between classes, he lashed out at his tormentor with a kitchen knife. Like more and more children, he saw violence as the only way out. Both boys were only thirteen years old. Inside the ambulance was the boy who had been stabbed twice. The wound only just missed his heart and lungs. Otherwise he might have died. The boy who attacked him, is scared and traumatised. He lives with his mother, after his father was shot dead in front of him when he was younger. He is small and vulnerable, and tired of being bullied and teased. Now he will have to face the consequences of what he has done. 

 

UPS: - NARIMAN KHAN; SAFER SCHOOLS: WESTERN CAPE -We see learners are becoming more aggressive in their approach to conflict. Often we find a lack of supervision at home because parents are forced to work, the learners are being left on their own to battle through life and find solutions for their own problems. And often they jus respond by imitating someone or someone’s behaviour.

 

UPS: - VOICER – It means that kids fall into bad company. Educators also risk their lives in the classroom.  They often bear the brunt of learners’ anger and know full well that many carry dangerous weapons, and would not hesitate to use them. They are also threatened by too many strangers have easy access to schools.

 

UPS: - RICARDO APRIL; EDUCATOR - You never feel safe when you are a teacher and especially when you teach in a community where there is a high crime area. We have to be policemen, social workers and teachers and sometimes this can be a burden on us. We were never trained when we trained to becoming a teacher to deal with these kinds of conflict resolution.

 

UPS: - VOICER – Teachers at this school carry radios at all times. It’s not uncommon for gang members to jump the fence to rob learners. Within the last month alone, they’ve stabbed two children.  In the absence of other effective security measures, educators have had to shoulder the burden of safety. But even when intruders are caught, teachers are scared to press charges against the gangs for fear of intimidation. 

 

UPS: - RICARDO APRIL; EDUCATOR - The suspects brothers and his friends came to my class while I was teaching and trying to intimidate me to drop the charges and at that stage I felt very unsafe and uncomfortable. And I informed the police and the police said to me that there is no way that they can protect me on a twenty four hour basis. So the only thing for me now is to protect myself and to be vigilant.

 

UPS: - VOICER – While we were here, this man recently out of prison - was seen prowling around the admin building. Moments later, a member of a local gang walked through the school carrying an axe.  Other gang members patrolled the perimeter fence. The danger is very real and needs urgent action.

 

AD BREAK 2

 

UPS: - VOICER – This school in Hanover Park on the Cape Flats looks more like a prison than a place of learning. But fortification is not the solution to school violence and bars and grills create a hostile environment. Despite efforts to control access, this school is plagued by the usual problems. During break learners can slip through holes in the fences and wander out. It’s as easy for drugs and weapons to be smuggled in. There is simply no control over what or who goes in or out. To help sort out these problems the Department of Education has set up a Safer School programme in each province.

 

UPS: - CAMERON DUGMORE; MEC FOR EDUCATION WESTERN CAPE - Schools need to be places where free of violence, are free of drugs and free of weapons.  And this is a fundamental challenge because our core mandate is to deliver a curriculum and these issues are actually inhibiting our ability.

 

UPS: - NALEDI PANDOR; MINISTER OF EDUCATION – There is also a question of resources are available and really we could be devoting resources to issues such as these, and in the final analysis not be able to provide books pencils and those things.

 

UPS: - VOICER – In the Western Cape, the Safer Schools programme operates a Call Centre. You can dial a toll free number to report any incident at school or threat of violence. Almost every day they deal with cases of intimidation, bullying or assault. They give advice, and will help mobilise police or rescue services if necessary. But given the levels of violence in some areas, it is not a long-term solution. But the Department of Education alone can’t be responsible for safety.

 

UPS: - NALEDI PANDOR; MINISTER OF EDUCATION – If you have a township where you have gangs freely roam in a school and carry on with their criminal activity, there is something wrong with us allowing that, and it is not a facet of a lack of action by ourselves, it is a fundamental need for us to change the communities perspective on schools and the way in which they view the protection of their children.

 

UPS: - VOICER – These so-called Bambanani volunteers have been placed at some schools in high risk areas.  They’re community members and who help protect the property. Their presence is some deterrent. But they’re unarmed so in more serious cases of violence, there’s little they can do. In the past Levana Primary in Lavender Hill was often the centre of running gang battles. The school sometimes had to shut because of shoot-outs across its playground. It’s not like that any more.

 

UPS: - IVOR NOBER; PRINCIPAL - I think it is all about respect. But I think that as part of our training, you know we are learning now that instead of shouting rather stay calm how difficult it might be and then try to in a nice fashion then address their specific issue.

 

UPS: - VOICER – The school has played an active role in developing the local community so parents are now more willing to protect it.  This approach shows that it is possible for schools to become a safe haven for learners.

 

UPS: - IVOR NOBER; PRINCIPAL - We as teachers are also community workers. Because what we are doing with kids at school we are doing for the community. If we can develop our learners at school in a positive way then we will make a positive impact on our community.

 

UPS: - VOICER – The Department of Education believes that there’ll only be any real change at schools if violence in communities is reduced and the community takes responsibility for the safety of its learners. But how realistic is this when families are struggling with desperate poverty and unemployment? Many parents can barely take care of themselves, let alone their children. So have we reached the stage where what is needed are armed guards, metal detectors and electric fences?

 

UPS: - RICARDO APRIL; EDUCATOR - so we just feel from our side that we need constant security and that is what the principal says constant security especially at school in high crime areas. Because at the end of the day it is our lives and our learners lives that are in danger if anything happens here at our schools

 

UPS: - HANNAH DARRIES; MOTHER - The safety of schools here in general by Stephen Road it’s bullshit, because it is now three children that died.