Teacher warned to stop hugging or touching girls, writes Julia Grey
A private school in the Northern Province has been rocked by allegations of misconduct, including a claim that bursaries are being granted in exchange for sex.
Teaching staff at St Marks College made the allegations against deputy principal Frank Lebotsa and acting head Simon Shosane.
In a memo addressed to Brian Mothibe, a member of the school council, staff of the school allege that “[Lebotsa] sleeps with schoolgirls, promising them bursaries”.
However, an investigation by Bishop Martin Breytenbach, head of the school council, found that there was no wrongdoing by Lebotsa.
But, he says Lebotsa “has been in the habit of hugging learners, openly and in public. The investigation did not find the hugging synonymous with sexual harassment.
The report recommended that “Lebotsa should be warned” not to hug or touch learners.
Mothibe describes the investigation’s findings as nonsense. “The learners know about cases of sexual harassment, and the investigators were given all the facts. Why is the bishop trying to protect teachers?”
Lebotsa dismissed the allegation that he offered sex-for-bursaries and says some colleagues at St Marks are trying to blackmail him into resigning because “they may want my position”.
Principal Simon Shosane says Lebotsa’s behaviour was not sexual harassment, and that “Lebotsa was actually comforting children, going around them and touching them to get the background of the students.” He says the girl who formally complained about sexual harassment was “a new learner (at the school) and unaware of this kind of behaviour”.
Tshidi Masebe, education co-ordinator for the Sex Harassment and Education Project says in her opinion it is considered to be sexual harassment as soon as the receiving party feels uncomfortable with physical or verbal treatment. In her view, physical intimacy such as hugging “could extend to fondling or invading personal space”.
– The Teacher/M&G Media, Johannesburg, September 2001.