Parents threaten to burn school after snake spits on pupil
Parents have threatened to burn down a northern KwaZulu-Natal school on Thursday morning after a snake allegedly spat in the face of a Grade 2 pupil.
Less than four days after parents met with education officials to discuss the "snake problem" and poor infrastructure at Dundee Junior Secondary School on Sunday‚ a child had to be rushed to the local hospital after the alleged snake attack.
"The snakes are coming from the neighbouring property‚ which is an unkempt bush. At the meeting we were told that the municipality would clear the plot and bill the owner - but obviously that did not happen‚" the school's governing body chairman Gift Gaysman told TimesLive.
@ecr9495 Learners at Dundee Junior Secondary School are forced to study outside after their prefab classrooom was demolished. The state of the school is terrible, with many classrooms falling apart and even snakes found on the premises.Nothing is being done. pic.twitter.com/ItD9t6WpqV
— NKZN Courier (@NNCourier) May 22, 2018
He said that there were no previous snake attacks at the school‚ but that several of the slithery reptiles have been spotted under prefab class rooms‚ which were warm.
He said parents‚ who had already protested at the school several times over the last few weeks‚ were angry that a child was injured.
"News of the snake attack went viral and parents rushed to the school [on Thursday morning]. They are burning tyres‚ the road is closed and I hear that they plan to burn down the school tonight‚" Gaysman said.
@DBE_KZN what are you doing about the crisis at Dundee Junior secondary school? The parents have locked the gates to the school because the condition the school is in is dangerous for students and teachers.https://t.co/zZ28olslDa
— Underground hippie (@elihlee) May 9, 2018
KwaZulu-Natal education departmental spokesperson Kwazi Mthethwa said the department was unaware of the incident‚ but however warned that violent protesters "will be met with very harsh action from the law enforcement agencies.
"We are stating very clearly that we are running more than 6 000 schools in this province and we take allegations of intimidation very seriously. We want to remind those angry protesters that no amount of anger can give license to any person to disrupt learning and teaching. There are other ways of engaging with the department‚" he said.