Limits to offender registers preventing sex pests getting a job at schools

Screening educators against South Africa's sex registers is cumbersome‚ impractical and costly‚ and is unlikely to even deliver the intended outcome‚ an expert says.

Governing bodies or education departments should by law submit the names of prospective employees who will work with children to three registers to see if the person has a conviction - the sexual offences and child protection register as well as a police register for a criminal clearance certificate.

This is time-consuming and the paperwork can take months to come back.

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Social worker Joan van Niekerk‚ who was previously involved in investigating the feasibility of a register with the SA law commission‚ does training with government teachers and says she always asks them if they have been screened.

"Meeting one that has been screened is a rarity."

Staff give permission to be screened and therefore know if it has happened.

She was responding to questions by The Times on the screening of people who work with children after the Sunday Times reported that Parktown Boys school in Johannesburg had employed a former pupil as a water polo coach who stands accused of molesting hostel boys.

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Generally‚ governing bodies at wealthier schools do better than government schools at screening‚ she said. They can often afford lawyers to help do the checking.

Van Niekerk says South Africa should not have more than one register.

"The direct duplication of registers is costing taxpayers millions."

However‚ Van Niekerk questioned the effectiveness of a register‚ saying it is up to sexual offenders to keep their details on the register up to date. It is also up to registrars at the court to update the registers once convictions have been handed down. In both instances‚ this doesn't always happen.

She also said some job-seekers may use an alias instead of their ID number or true name.

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And sex pests are not always teachers‚ she cautioned. Groundsmen and builders who also work at schools‚ sometimes in a temporary capacity‚ may not have been checked against an offenders register.

Van Niekerk said there is a global move away from spending money on registers. The World Health Organisation and Unicef are working on investing in ways that are proven to stop child abuse. These are usually improving parenting‚ she said. "Men are the predominant abusers of children and much more must be invested in parenting young boys and ensuring there is no violence in the home.

“In South Africa we need to work on the sense of [sexual] entitlement young men often have.“

She said the average sex offender who worked with children was likeable and popular.

Boys who were abused would think that no one would believe them and choose not to report crime. "They also didn’t report abuse for fear of being labelled gay.”

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She said teenage boys would seldom spontaneously report abuse.

In one case she knew of the father found pornography the teacher had made on his sons' cell phone. The teacher had abused 18 boys at a top school and not one child had come forward.

"It is a very vulnerable age."

"It is the worst possible age for it to have occurred‚" she said of Parktown high school boys case.

- TMG Digital/The Times