Teachers at a school in rural Zimbabwe have been convicted of assault after a brutal caning spree during which they beat around 300 children with broomsticks for being late for lessons, breaking one girl’s arm, it was reported on Monday.
The incident happened before Easter at Rambanepasi High School in the eastern Hwedza district, said the state-controlled The Herald newspaper.
Angered by the continual lateness of their pupils, three teachers and acting headmaster Herbert Muradza caned all but 33 of them with broomsticks, said the report.
”We were ordered to stand in four lines and each teacher was assigned to his own line,” one girl told the paper. ”Other teachers and the non-teaching staff, who could not intervene, watched helplessly throughout the three-hour ordeal that saw pupils who had a reputation for notoriety being beaten several times by different teachers,” she said.
Villagers who heard the children’s cries rushed to the school and tried to stop the beatings but failed, she added. The 33 children who were spared the beating apparently had a reputation for being punctual.
The teachers and the acting headmaster have since been convicted of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, while the Education Ministry is investigating the incident, said The Herald. — Sapa-dpa