Rules at Oprah Winfrey’s posh school at Henley-on-Klip near Johannesburg apparently make a reformatory look like a holiday resort, the Witness reported on Monday.
Its website said that was the word from upset parents, who felt the school rules made it difficult for them to keep contact with their children.
They would have aired their concerns during a satellite link-up with the chat-show queen a week ago, but that was cancelled at short notice by the school’s management body.
Meanwhile, the school appeared to have made the rules even stricter. Until now, the girls could receive visitors every fortnight, but parents can now only visit once a month.
Frances Mans, foster-mother of pupil Gweneth Mulder, said cellphones and email correspondence were out of bounds during the week.
Girls were only allowed to phone their parents on weekends.
The maximum number of visitors per pupil was four, and visits had to be approved by the school at least two weeks in advance.
Parents were not allowed to smuggle junk food to the girls past the matrons.
”Then the girls lose points,” said Mans.
Angela Conradie, whose daughter Michelle is at the school, was just as upset about the strict visiting times.
”Michelle phones me in tears sometimes, and then I don’t know what to say to her,” says Conradie.
John Samuels, the executive head of the school, confirmed only one visit a month would be allowed in future.
He said: ”We have the security and wellbeing of the girls at heart, in every respect. They are our priority. If there’s too much movement on the premises on the weekend, it disturbs the school spirit.”
The United States talk-show host opened the school at the beginning of the year to give less privileged South African children an opportunity to receive a first-class education. — Sapa