The head teacher at a Catholic school in Swaziland forces
boys to lower their trousers so he can beat them on their bare buttocks.
This is the latest example of child abuse at schools to
emerge from the kingdom where children, girls as well as boys, are regularly
flogged, often ritually, as punishment.
The latest case happened at Salesian High School, Manzini.
Outraged parents have reported head teacher Petross Horton to the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA).
Outraged parents have reported head teacher Petross Horton to the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA).
One parent of a pupil at the all-boys’ school told the Times of Swaziland newspaper, ‘My child
said the head teacher forced him to lower his trousers and them battered his
bare buttocks with a stick so big it was like a plank.’
Parents have described the bare-bottomed beatings as, ‘indecent
harassment and brutality’.
Horton told the newspaper on ‘rare occasions’ he had to
force boys to lower their trousers so he could punish them on the flesh. He said
he had to deal with cases of smoking and absconding of classes.
Although corporal punishment of children is legal in
Swaziland, there are rules about how it can be administered, which do not
include floggings on the bare.
Teachers across Swaziland regularly ignore the
regulations and abuse schoolchildren.
In 2012, Save the Children Swaziland condemned teachers at
Lusoti Primary for beating all the children at the school after one pupil made
a noise in assembly.
In October 2011, the same group told
the United Nations Human Rights Periodic Review held in Geneva that
corporal punishment in Swazi schools was out of control. It highlighted
Mhlatane High School in northern Swaziland where it said pupils were ‘tortured’
in the name of punishment. It said, ‘Teachers can administer as many strokes
[of the cane] as they desire, much against the limit stipulated in the
regulations from the Ministry of Education.’
In a separate case, girls
at Mpofu High School were flogged by teachers on their bare flesh and if
they resisted they were chained down so the beating could continue. The girls
reported they received up to 40 strokes at a time.
In another
case, a 10-year-old girl at kaLanga Nazarene Primary school was blinded for
life in her left eye after a splinter from a teacher’s stick flew and struck it
during punishment. And she was not the child being punished. She was injured
when her teacher was hitting another pupil, with a stick which
broke.
Children at Emtfonjeni High School were whipped with up to 10 strokes of a stick, because their school fees have not been paid. A majority of the pupils at the school are orphaned and depend on government to pay for their fees.
Children at Emtfonjeni High School were whipped with up to 10 strokes of a stick, because their school fees have not been paid. A majority of the pupils at the school are orphaned and depend on government to pay for their fees.
A pupil in Swaziland was thrashed so hard that he
later collapsed unconscious and had to be rushed to a clinic. Six pupils at
Mafucula High school were thrashed with 20 strokes of a ‘small log’ because
they were singing in class. It was reported
that the boy who became unconscious was not one of those misbehaving, but
he was flogged nonetheless.
The principal at Elangeni High, even publicly
flogs adults who date pupils at his school. The men are forced to attend in
front of the entire school, lie down on a bench and receive a whipping. The girls
are also flogged.
See also
SWAZI SCHOOL ‘TORTURES’ STUDENTS
CHILDREN CHAINED AND FLOGGED BARE
PROBE VICIOUS SCHOOL BEATINGS
SCHOOL FLOGGINGS OUT OF CONTROL
SCHOOL HEAD PUBLICLY FLOGS ADULTS
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