Girl in school ‘slap’ video to learn her fate next week

The governors of a Cape Town school, where a teacher slapped a pupil in a classroom,  will decide on the girl’s punishment early next week.

The incident was captured on video.

The Grade 9 pupil involved in the altercation with a Sans Souci Girls’ High School teacher faced a disciplinary hearing on Thursday.

Her suspension from school remains in force pending the school governing body’s decision on her future. “We expect this early next week,” Western Cape education department spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said on Friday.

The teacher involved in the fracas, a governing body employee, will face a disciplinary hearing on February 21.

The South African Teachers’ Union has appointed two lawyers, one a senior counsel, to represent the teacher.

In the video, the teacher can be seen and heard embroiled in an argument with the pupil over a book. The teacher grabs the girl’s cellphone from her hands, telling her it is against the school’s regulations to have it during class.

Matters quickly escalate as both the teacher and child accuse each other of swearing. The teacher tells the pupil to leave the class, but she refuses. The pupil says something inaudible and the teacher replies: “Are you swearing at me? You are speaking a different language in my class!”

The teacher then switches to Afrikaans, pushes the desk towards the pupil and gets close to her face. The pupil pushes the desk back towards the teacher and gets up.

The teacher shouts: “Are you hitting me?” She slaps the pupil and continues: “You push me! You swear at me!”