Questions are being raised about schools' vetting when hiring staff after an unregistered school guidance counsellor was accused of raping and sexually assaulting primary school boys at an upmarket Pietermaritzburg school.The counsellor appeared in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate's Court yesterday and was denied bail.The 32-year-old unmarried man, charged with two counts of rape and two of sexual assault, was not registered with the SA Council of Educators and did not have a contract with the school.The SA Council of Educators Act of 2000 says: "No person may be employed as an educator by any employer unless the person is registered with the council."The counsellor is also not registered with the Health Professions Council of SA to work as a counsellor.The principal of the prominent former model C school is also facing disciplinary action.Speaking outside court yesterday, KwaZulu-Natal education MEC Mthandeni Dlungwana refused to divulge internal charges to be brought against the principal but he said he was "unhappy with a lot of things at the school".At a meeting at the school this month Dlungwana heard that parents had expressed concern over "physical touching games" taking place.The principal told Dlungwana at the meeting that he had asked the counsellor to stop the games and leave the door and curtains open. But Dlungwana lambasted him for taking parents' concerns lightly.The ages of the boys recorded in the charge sheet are seven to nine but new charges to be added relate to boys as young as five.The court heard the counsellor allegedly targeted boys from unstable backgrounds. A parent blamed the school's management for "playing dumb"."The school doesn't even have a proper list of the children he was seeing." The mother of 10-year-old boys said her twins had been consulting the counsellor for three years for learning difficulties."In January I approached the counsellor because I wanted to know why the counselling was not helping my boys. One of my sons was sent for evaluation to a doctor and a medical was done. It was discovered he had been raped."We then established that both my sons were raped and my five-year-old was also sexually assaulted. The twins said the teacher told them that he would kill their parents or make us go to jail if they told anyone what he had been doing," she said.Childline SA national director Dumisile Nala yesterday said every school should conduct thorough background checks of all its employees."It is very important for people to be registered with these bodies because it outlines the ethics and the manner in which the educator conducts himself and prescribes himself to particular ethos and ethics. It gives you an additional stamp that you can practise as a teacher."As we work with children there are specific requirements within the Children's Act to make sure every person in your employ is checked against the Child Protection Register. The fact that this person wasn't registered and the school didn't check shows negligence on the part of the school."Marc Hardwick, director of The Guardian child-protection service, said every school's management was obligated by the Sexual Offences Act to check if a teacher was on the Sex Offenders Register."If he has never been found guilty of anything the school would find out that he is clear, and based on that, the school would employ him but they didn't check. Yes, they would have found nothing. But the truth of it is that they should have checked."He said based on the fact that the employee was not checked, the National Prosecuting Authority could prosecute the principal."Failure on behalf of the employer to check is punishable by criminal prosecution and could result in seven years' imprisonment or a fine or both."..