A schoolboy has been suspended after forcing a Grade 1 boy’s head down a toilet and flushing the loo.
The seven-year-old victim has been left traumatised after the 12-year-old boy kept his head under the running water of the toilet at Spine View Primary School in Rocklands, Mitchells Plain, last Thursday.
The child’s father says he came home crying and with red eyes, barely able to explain what happened at school.
“It is upsetting to see your child like this. He was hurt by this older boy and it could have been so much worse,” says dad Anele Dladloti from Khayelitsha.
“The bully just left him there crying in the toilet and another child came to help him and took him to the principal’s office.
“He described to me that he was breathing in the dirty water, and his eyes were burning and he felt like he was choking.
“This bully is a big, tall boy, my son could not defend himself.”
Anele says he went to the school early on Friday, where principal Mr Elliott told him the Grade 5 boy has been expelled after the incident.
But Anele says this was not good enough and he went to lay a charge at the Mitchells Plain police station.
He says his son came home on Monday afternoon and said the bully was back at the school.
“He got such a fright to see the boy in the quad that he went to go hide behind the teacher’s desk and just burst out into tears,” says the dad.
Yesterday, he went to the school for a meeting with the bully’s mother, who told him the boy’s father had passed away recently.
He says the boy’s mother cried when she heard her child had been bullying his schoolmates. “I actually feel sorry for her. But it still gives him no right to hurt other children,” says Anele.
Paddy Atwell of the Western Cape Education Department says they are aware of the incident.
“We are aware the school suspended the alleged perpetrator and will hold a disciplinary hearing,” he says. “Our circuit team will monitor the case closely and will provide professional support, as required.”
Constable Noloyiso Rwexana confirms a charge of assault common is under investigation.