Students flex their legal muscles defending 'naughty' pupils

Schools may find it harder to kick out “misbehaving” pupils in future thanks to a small army of budding lawyers from the University of the Western Cape.

The Chamber of Legal Students provides free legal assistance to high school pupils facing disciplinary hearings.

It was started two months by second-year law student Yolisa Nocanda and has attracted 80 students thanks to demand for its services. Nocanda said students had won all seven cases they had dealt with.

“What we have picked up is that ...schools have a blatant disregard for following processes‚” he said. “We don’t know if they are doing it on purpose or they just generally don’t know how to chair hearings or how to fairly and responsibly institute these proceedings.”

• Rural pupils forced to use old church buildings for classroomsHundreds of rural pupils from a school in Ngqeleni in the Eastern Cape are being taught in crumbling old church buildings scattered throughout their village after education authorities failed to provide them with prefab structures. 

Today (Wednesday) the students will handle their biggest case‚ defending a pupil from Bosmansdam High School in Bothasig‚ Cape Town‚ who faces six charges relating to signature forgery and consumption and misuse of codeine. Paul Colditz‚ CEO of the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools‚ said cases where procedure was not followed were isolated.

“The point is that very few SGBs have lawyers ... the SGB people are either teachers‚ principals or lay people.

“What the courts have already said is these disciplinary hearings are internal matters and they do not require the same exactness that is required in the court of law.

“I am just a little concerned‚ I mean‚ lawyers can do much to assist schools with these disciplinary hearings and very often we advise schools to welcome the fact that lawyers are involved‚ provided that they understand that [it] is not an adversarial‚ typical criminal case.”

However‚ a parent whose child has been out of school for most of the year may agree with Nocanda.

• Situation tense in Vuwani as demarcation saga rages onThe tense situation in Vuwani continued on Tuesday following a decision by the community on Monday to shut down services in the area after a dispute over municipal boundaries. 

The woman‚ who cannot be named to protect the identity of her 17-year-old son‚ has written to Western Cape Education MEC Debbie Schafer to overturn the expulsion of her son for taking a knife to Hermanus High School.

Her son was expelled last month from the school which produced one of the country’s top matric pupils last year‚ but the mother disputes that he had a knife.

“He is not at school now and I can’t find any school‚ because if I take him to school in the Eastern Cape they will need a report for term one‚” she said.

In a letter to the mother from the school governing body in February‚ the school claimed the 17-year-old brought a dangerous weapon to school‚ threatened another pupil and lied about the incident.

Jessica Shelver‚ who speaks on behalf of Schafer‚ confirmed that the MEC had received the appeal and would “apply [her] mind to the facts of the case at hand and after careful consideration‚ decide either to uphold or dismiss the appeal”.

- TMG Digital/TimesLIVE