Cape Town parents were up in arms after a teenager accused of raping four girls was allowed to attend classes at school.
|||Cape Town - Parents at a Cape Town school are up in arms after a teenager accused of raping four girls was allowed to attend classes.
But the education department says they have to allow the alleged rapist to continue going to school.
The 15-year-old high school boy is accused of raping four girls.
The children are not related and are all minors. The youngest victim - a toddler - is still in crèche.
The name of the school has been withheld to protect the identities of the victims.
The boy allegedly lured the girls to his home in the southern suburbs and raped them.
The teen has been charged with rape and appeared in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Juvenile Court.
The case has been postponed for further investigation and the boy was released, under his guardian’s supervision.
Parents at the high school have complained to the principal that the boy should not be allowed back at school.
The principal showed the Daily Voice a court order that legally compels the school to allow the boy to return to his Grade 8 class.
“Unless the education department legally objected to the court order, my hands are tied,” says the principal.
The teen goes for regular counselling and when the Daily Voice visited the school on Wednesday, the boy was absent.
“He’s gone to a [counselling] session today,” says the principal.
He says he has met with the boy’s guardian and has told them the child will be under close supervision at school.
Parents are still unhappy and say they don’t think the girls at school are safe.
One mother says: “How can he be allowed to just walk around as if nothing has happened? He can’t be trusted.”
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) says the boy’s court case is still ongoing.
Spokeswoman Bronagh Casey says: “The matter still needs to be dealt with in court. It has not yet been determined by a court of law whether the child is guilty or not guilty.
“The court will decide, if guilty, what facility the learner should attend.”
She says the department has not yet decided if it will challenge the court order allowing the boy to go to school.
“The WCED will refer the matter to legal services for advice before any decision is made on whether to appeal or not to appeal the bail conditions. In the interim, the court order stands,” she adds.
Daily Voice