- The WCED has cleared the John Graham Primary School in Cape Town of any wrongdoing following an investigation into a series of videos posted on social media by an irate mother.
- The parent claimed the school had failed to inform them that there was an alleged sexual predator at school.
- The Western Cape Education Department said the allegations made were unfounded.
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has cleared the John Graham Primary School in Plumstead, Cape Town, of wrongdoing after concluding an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse and molestation at the school.
This follows the posting of a series of videos on social media by an irate parent last week, accusing the school of sweeping an alleged sexual abuse incident by one of its teachers under the rug.
In the videos posted by Chantal Muller, she claimed the school had failed to inform parents of an alleged sexual predator at the school and that children were kicking each other in their private parts.
"The school takes no responsibility about what happens on school grounds during school hours. Children are called out by teachers and bullied," she claimed in the posts.
The WCED said it had received a report regarding the allegations.
It added that it was aware of the social media posts and the school has requested that the posts be removed as they were defamatory, hurtful, and unfounded.
"It is unfortunate that the parent did decide to go onto social media before engaging with the school or the WCED. The WCED had not been approached by this parent previously regarding these or any other issues at the school. The district has also never received any complaint of this nature from any other parent from the school," Bronagh Hammond, spokesperson for the department, said.
The department said many of the allegations that were voiced were unfounded.
The WCED said allegations regarding a physical sexual assault at the school were inaccurate.
"There was an allegation and investigation of sexual harassment involving an educator in 2019. A full investigation was conducted and the educator is no longer employed at the school – however there was no physical assault (molestation) at the school."
The WCED said it is engaging with the school and will act on any new evidence that supports claims of abuse. It added that the parent also singles out a specific teacher for being a bully, but this was also not true since the learner in question was not in the teacher's class, or at any stage of her schooling career.
It added that the parent also singles out a specific teacher for being a bully, however, this teacher had never taught the learner and only liaised with the learner on two occasions for not complying with the dress code.
Principal André Engel said they are vindicated following the outcome of the investigation.
Engel said the school's public image has been severely tarnished and they will have to work very hard to regain the amazing progress they've made in this area.
"I want to appeal to parents and all members of the public to be very critical when seeing or hearing something sensational on social media or even in the car park. Be careful not to be drawn into commentary when you are not sure of the facts."
Attempts to reach Muller were unsuccessful.