A maths and science teacher with more than 30 years’ experience has been fired for sexually violating four primary school pupils in the Western Cape.
The 56-year-old teacher, described as a “competent mathematics teacher and one of the best educators”, was fired this month after admitting to sexual misconduct.
The teacher, not named here so as to protect the identity of affected minors, was hauled before the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) after the provincial education department approached the council to appoint an arbitrator to test the allegations.
The teacher faced five charges for contravening the Employment of Educators Act by tickling four pupils under their breasts and touching one on her upper arm while he was on duty. All the victims were in grade 7.
According to the ruling handed down by the ELRC last Tuesday, the incidents happened between January and February.
ELRC commissioner Jacques Buitendag called the school principal and pupils to testify. The principal said he was approached by three “visibly upset” pupils on January 27 who complained the teacher had “poked or tickled them under the arm”.
“[The principal] testified that educators are not allowed in the space of learners,” the ruling reads.
“He did not probe the learners about the incidents but referred it to the [department] for investigation. [The principal] explained that he was wearing two hats. [The teacher] is a competent mathematics teacher and one of the best educators at the school and he is a valuable asset to the school. [The teacher] was not placed on precautionary suspension. He is a colleague and friend and he does not want anything bad to happen to [him].
“On the other hand, he must enforce the policies and rules of the [department] and create a safe environment for the learners. [The teacher] should not be allowed in the space of the learners based on the allegations to which he had pleaded guilty.”
The first complainant, a 13-year-old girl, testified the teacher was “checking her mathematics work when he tickled her under her breast”.
“She said ‘no, sir’,” the ruling reads. “[The pupil] testified that it is her body and her private parts and that she felt uncomfortable. No-one has ever before touched her in such a manner.”
Another pupil testified that “while she was busy with her homework [the teacher] approached her and [touched] her under her arm and next to the left side of her breast.
“She did not like it and she felt uncomfortable,” the ruling reads. “It happened in the first term during February 2023. At first, she thought that he touched her in a friendly manner, but this has changed when she heard that he also touched other girls in the same manner.”
The department argued that the teacher was “aware of the rules and had betrayed the trust placed in him”, that he should have “created a safe environment [for] the learners, instead, he became a threat and abused the victims for his own pleasure”.
“For an educator with more than 30 years of experience, he ought to have known what is expected of him and his conduct was inappropriate,” the department argued.
He pleaded guilty and has since been declared unfit to work with children. He tried to argue in mitigation saying that he “wanted to make the learners feel more comfortable in his class and tickled them”.
“[The teacher] demonstrated how he tickled the learners,” the ruling reads. “[He] said that he has done it in previous years and that there were no complaints. He cannot recall that any one of the learners said they felt uncomfortable.”
He testified that “after a parent of one of the learners approached him in February 2023, he stopped tickling the girls”.
“[The teacher] said he had no intention to do anything untoward to the learners. He is 56 years old and does not want this to end his career,” the ruling reads.
The teacher also argued, through his union representative, that he was not “charged with sexual misconduct, and that it cannot be assumed that his conduct amounts to sexual misconduct in the absence of such evidence”.
The representative argued he should not have been “subjected to a pre-dismissal inquiry”, he had “pleaded guilty to the allegations, acknowledged his wrongdoing and has shown genuine remorse”, and “the main objective of the disciplinary action is correct behaviour”.
The representative added the teacher had a “clean record [and] was not suspended”. Buitendag ruled that touching a pupil’s upper arm did not “raise an allegation of sexual misconduct” but found the teacher’s conduct towards four pupils was untoward.
“[The teacher] chose to touch or tickle these four 13-year-old female learners [who are in their early adolescence], underneath or side of their breasts,” Buitendag said in the ruling.
“I cannot accept that a male educator could have ever considered touching or tickling 13-year-old female leaners underneath or at the side of their breasts would be OK. [The teacher] has admitted, by pleading guilty, that his conduct was improper, disgraceful or unacceptable. I find his conduct being far removed from acting in the best interest of the learners. It was also not an isolated incident as it happened to four female learners and on four separate occasions between January and February 2023.”
Buitendag said teachers are “entrusted with the care of children and they must act with the utmost good fair in the conduct towards learners because society must be able to trust educators unconditionally with their children”.
“[The] teacher has breached his trust. I find dismissal to be the only appropriate sanction in this instance,” Buitendag ruled. “Having regard of the seriousness of [the teacher’s] conduct, I find him unsuitable to work with children.”
Buitendag ordered that a copy of the ruling be sent to the SA Council for Educators to consider revoking the teacher’s certificate.
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