The family of a Limpopo high school learner is seeking justice after authorities failed to hold their son’s alleged bullies to account
Tshegofatso Ngoetjana, a grade 9 learner at Taxila High School in Polokwane, took his life in the beginning of this month after allegedly enduring a year-long bullying from his teachers.
According to Lesetja Ngoetjana, his son struggled with depression developed after he was deliberately targeted by a schoolteacher, who had in the past repeatedly failed him of his grades.
He alleges that Tshego’s final encounter with bullying occurred after he was severely assaulted by the school’s principal and security guard after they allegedly found him in possession of an electronic cigarette.
“My son had been labelled as a troublemaker in school and what hurts me is that I have always been to every meeting in which the school summoned me. However, on the day he was assaulted – I was not called. I had to hear the news from a neighbour that my son was beaten, and he had been kicked out of school,” says the fuming father.
Ngoetjana says that the family learnt about their child’s struggle with depression after reading a suicide letter and his fellow learners speaking out on the ill treatment that they had witnessed being done to him.
“A learner from Taxila also told us that she knew what was happening in that school. She said that she is also being bullied by the very same teacher, principal and security guard because she was close to Tshego.”
To add salt to the wound, Ngoetjana says that the school’s principal continues to tarnish his son’s image by making false remarks that he was involved in drugs.
“I have been struggling to contain myself because I am constantly provoked. This man said publicly in front of pupils in the assembly point that my son was arrested, and he is in the mortuary in handcuffs, because he knew what he did,” says the grieving parent.
The Ngoetjana family is now planning to take legal action against the Limpopo Provincial Department of Education for negligence.
They say they are determined to hold the school accountable, especially as this is not the first incident of bullying reported at Taxila High School.
“There’s also a family that lost their child last year due to teacher bullying and the family remained quiet. But I won’t let what happened to my child slide, I have consulted with my lawyer, and we have a meeting with the MEC Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya so that we can initiate court proceedings,” Ngoetjana adds.
Efforts to reach the provincial Department of Education spokesperson, Matome Moremi, were unsuccessful as his phone rang unanswered. Written by YNews Contributor, Bukuta Nkuna
Written by: Lindiwe Mabena
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