Parents have implicit faith that their children will not only be given good schooling but will be given care and protection by teachers.

This is allied to the fact that teachers become virtually ‘second parents’ to children at schools wherein a bond is created between teachers and children. This bond is one that parents trust as a cocoon for their children from ‘one home to another’ and an essential component and preparation for their children to brave a world with a good education, confidence, high self-esteem, moral values and ethics.

The lead front-page article ‘School sex offenders shock,’ The Mercury, Monday, 20 October 2014 and the statistics therein are indeed a ‘shock’ for any parent sending their child to school.

South Africans have to cope on a daily basis with both crime and crime statistics which are absolutely alarming compared to the world sphere, especially those of a sexual nature where children are victims.

It is unacceptable that ‘registered sex-offender or someone caught harming a child’ should be allowed to even walk in the corridors of a school where children are most vulnerable.
It is incumbent that all principals, governing and parent bodies of schools - both private and public - take the necessary steps to screen, investigate and remove such teachers from our schools.

‘Proactive legislation’ in SA needs to be policed not only by private investigators but also by the authorities to remove this scourge from our society.

Darul Ihsan Media Desk