It was in the year 2000 when one learner who passed his Grade 2 in my class in 1999 started playing truant. His Grade 3 teacher who was also the principal of our school, approached me to complain about him. He asked me to write a letter to call the parents to school. We reported the matter to his mother, who informed us that the child no longer slept at home at night. We requested her to go and find out where the child was.
The next morning I was so glad to see the mother holding the boy by the hand walking to school. When I asked the mother where she got the boy, I was surprised top hear her saying that she had done something wrong. When I enquired further, she instructed the boy to show me his hand. I was shocked to see half of the boy’s finger missing. The boy was still bleeding and I couldn’t continue watching. I called the principal who was also shocked to see the bleeding child.
When the principal asked her what had happened, she replied by saying that the boy was a thief and she had cut off his finger in the hope that he would stop being a thief. We asked her how she did it, and she said that she had instructed the boy to put his hand on the floor, put a sharp knife on the finger, hit the knife with a hammer and the whole half of a finger fell away.
We called the boy’s grandfather who came and saw the boy. The boy’s grandfather asked the mother to take the child to the hospital. Two days later the boy returned to school with a bandaged finger. When I asked the boy what he said to the hospital people, he replied by telling me that on the way to the nearest clinic, his mother gave him some money and told him not to tell the truth about his injury. According to the boy, the mother told the nurse at the clinic that his finger had been cut by a sheet of corrugated iron when they were carrying it. Hearing that, I called the principal and informed him what the child had told me and we reported the matter to the police. The mother was arrested immediately.
Realising that I was going to start having a bad relationship with the mother when she was released, I arranged a cross-transfer with a teacher from another school.
I appeal to my dear parents and teachers to avoid punishing children. There are alternatives.