A 15-year old male student at Lebogang Junior Secondary School in Selebi Phikwe has been assaulted in full view of the whole school a fortnight ago by none other than the headmaster. The assault took place as the whole school (teachers and students) were coming together for the morning assembly.
Incensed by horseplay the student had good-naturedly engaged in with a friend, the headmaster pounced on the student, slapped him really hard across the face. Just as suddenly, he shoved him into a group of students standing in the front rows. The headmaster’s palm connected with such explosive impact and force that one earwitness account is that the crack of the blow sounded like the violent snapping of a dry, fully grown tree branch. The victim complains of pain in the ear and says it intermittently oozes a watery discharge.
Other members of school management are as complicit in the matter and appear to be protecting the interests of the headmaster over those of the victim. The student was neither given counselling nor taken to the hospital. It was actually the boy’s mother who took him to a private doctor the following day when he complained of pain in the ear. The matter has not been reported to the regional office in Serowe.
Dr. Seipone Mphele, a clinical psychologist at the University of Botswana, says that following this incident, management – excluding the perpetrator, should have called the student to process the incident with him.
“It is important to understand from him – the student – what he thinks, feels, fears and hopes for. The teacher’s actions can easily exacerbate the student’s underlying issues and push him to the edge. My worry as a professional is always the impact of silencing children who, developmentally are also going through a lot of challenges emotionally, socially and biologically. Teens are already at risk for self injurious behaviour and as adults we should not push them to a point where they can easily act,” she says.
The deputy head, Banabotlhe Matsime says that she does not know about the incident. Curiously for someone in her position who does not know of an incident that shocking, she did not ask for precise details of what happened.
On the other hand, a teacher source says the following: “She knows. She was right behind him [the headmaster] at the time of the assault.”
The student’s mother, herself a teacher at Selebi Phikwe Senior Secondary School (SPSS), says Matsime told her that she was not in the assembly area at the time of the assault but learnt of it afterwards.
“She begged me to forgive the headmaster but I asked her if that was what she would do if her own child was assaulted by a teacher at SPSS,” the mother says.
The latter went to the school after learning of the incident to confront the headmaster. Given how many people witnessed the incident, the headmaster knew better than to deny hitting the student. After the assault, the headmaster later called the child to his office to apologise and is also understood to have done the same to teachers at a staff meeting.
Mphele says that the victim should not have been alone in the same room with the headmaster so soon after the incident.
“The student was actually being retraumatised by being forced into that situation again.
Emotionally he was not in any position to process, let alone make any sensible decisions after the assault. Given the fact that the head is an adult in authority makes this issue even more complex because he now uses his power to suppress the student who was still in shock and clearly embarrassed. It would have been fair to arrange for an independent mediator,” she says.
Until last year, the victim was part of the student leadership and a teacher at the school describes him as highly intelligent. The mother says she worries that the trauma and humiliation he suffered would impact on his academic performance.
The boy’s father, who lives in Gaborone, says that he was at once pained and enraged when he learnt of the assault.
“The first thought that came to my mind was to immediately go to Phikwe and beat that man up but after discussing the issue with his mother, we agreed that she should go to the school and get the facts,” the father says.
The parents’ names cannot be revealed to protect the identity of the student.
The incident was a result of the victim and a friend fooling around. The latter had grabbed hold of a tree branch and shaken out rain droplets trapped on the leaves following rainfall. The droplets fell out and splashed on students (including the victim) under the tree. The ill-fated student retaliated in like manner but unfortunately for him the headmaster had seen him do this. He ordered the student to come up onstage whereupon he descended on him.
The headmaster, Jabulani Nfila, was reached telephonically in Selebi Phikwe and given an opportunity to give his side of the story. Asked to confirm the incident he began with a denial but midway through it, changed tack to say he could not comment over the phone. He then insisted on a face-to-face interview.