Predatory women teachers are becoming more and more brazen

A 45-year-old female teacher brazenly took an 18-year-old matric boy to her home and introduced him to her children as their “new” stepfather.

The North West educator unashamedly revealed her relationship with the teenager to her husband, after explaining she was no longer interested in him.

In another case, a 46-year-old woman teacher from the Free State told members of a disciplinary panel, hearing a case of sexual misconduct against her, that the grade 10 pupil she was having a relationship with was “man enough than all of you”.

Yet another female teacher at a boarding school in the Northern Cape indecently assaulted a grade 10 girl with a vibrator, then cut her with a razor blade as a warning not to disclose the shocking incident to anyone.

They [parents] rather take the money and remain silent about it. For the child who has been the victim, it’s statutory rape.

—  Shaheda Omar, clinical director at the Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children

These are some of the horrific cases of female teachers sexually abusing pupils that have  been dealt with by the SA Council for Educators (Sace).

Between April last year and July 2021, 167 cases of sexual misconduct were reported to Sace, including 11 involving female teachers.

Sace told parliament last month that there was an emerging trend of female teachers abusing high school boys.

Sace CEO Ella Mokgalane told Sunday Times Daily that the Free State teacher was requested by a friend of the 16-year-old boy’s parents to assist him with extra tuition.

“But the family became suspicious after the teacher kept the boy until 2am in the morning. It was then revealed that she was abusing the boy.”

She said when the teacher was asked by the disciplinary panel why she had become involved with such a young child, her response was she could not be bothered and that he was “man enough than all of you”.

“She showed no remorse at all and was struck off the roll indefinitely.”

Mokgalane said in the case involving the female teacher who brought the matric pupil home, her husband reported the matter to them.

She said the families reconciled and the husband subsequently withdrew the case as the pupil had completed matric and was at university.

“All parties resolved it amicably and the teacher is still teaching because the matter was withdrawn. The only thing we can do is issue an advisory letter to the teacher to say, ‘In future please do not’. I’m not sure if the advisory letter was given.”

She said the teacher who indecently assaulted the female pupil was struck off the roll indefinitely.

In October 2019, Fiona Viotti resigned as history teacher and sports coach at the boys-only Bishops Diocesan College in Cape Town after allegations of a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old pupil surfaced.

Meanwhile, Mokgalane said three cases of women teachers abusing male pupils  had been reported to them between April and June.

“Every year we find a certain number of educators who are violating boys in school, especially high schools.”

She told Sunday Times Daily that they were conducting research as part of a new project on the profile of a typical sexual abuser by scrutinising the files of about 1,000 sexual misconduct cases over the past five financial years.

“We are beginning to see a trend of certain subjects and a trend of certain people who are working in spaces like labs and offices. If we understand the profile of a typical sexual abuser, it will assist us in [creating an intervention strategy].”

She said in Umlazi, south of Durban, a number of educators had used a science laboratory to have sex with pupils.

Mokgalane said they had also taken a resolution to charge school managers and teachers who hid sexual misconduct cases “because they are as guilty as the person who raped or abused a learner”.

They dealt with three such cases between April last year and July 2021.

Shaheda Omar, clinical director at the Teddy Bear Clinic for Abused Children, said teachers who impregnated pupils bribed parents with cash and groceries to buy their silence.

“They [parents] rather take the money and remain silent about it. For the child who has been the victim, it’s statutory rape.”

Said Omar: “The other concern is that I don’t know how that child when she grows into a woman is going to react to what was done. There might be a myriad emotions, anger resentment, bitterness or feeling let down by the betrayal by her parents who should have known better, but sold her for money.”

Last Wednesday, the portfolio committee on social development welcomed a proposal by the Dr Kenneth Kaunda district municipality in North West that the Children’s Amendment also address the problem of sugar daddies, a term given to older men who have sexual relationships with young girls in exchange for money and other benefits.

The Sunday Times reported that many poverty-stricken parents were not opening cases against teachers who had sex with their children and were also not reporting them to the education authorities because they were bribed with cash and groceries.