Emotional meeting for parents following primary school sexual assault incident

IT was an emotional day for the parents of two eight-year-old children as they met with detectives at their school on Monday following an alleged incident of sexual assault.

One of the children allegedly assaulted the other on the school premises on Tuesday last week.

“We got there, the detective came in, and we just waited. The detective then called us in. He just said, he knows exactly what happened. He interviewed a few people, it happened at the back of the school by the tree. There were three witnesses that saw,” the father said.

According to the parent, when they and the parents of the alleged perpetrator heard what had happened, they were all very emotional.

“The other parent was also very emotional when she found out about her son, she was in disbelief. We all cried. We felt sorry for her too because she was going through the same thing as us. The detective told us the social worker will be in touch, as social development will take the matter from here.” 

The parents said they wanted justice for the way the school handled the matter as they still had not heard from the teacher or principal. They said they learned about what happened that evening from their child, as the school called to say something had happened without providing more details. After the parents learned about the incident, they went to the local police and accompanied their child to a gender-based violence clinic where the pupil was examined. 

“We don’t know what's going on. We still haven't been in contact with the principal, in terms of exams, how my son will get to finish his work. How they will support him or anything. We were there but she (the principal) did not even look at us. She stayed in her own room. Honestly we still feel the same way we did last week, we don't have clarity,” the father said. 

The parents are determined to have their child transferred to a new school.

The Western Cape Department of Education (WCED) confirmed police visited the school on Monday. 

“SAPS were at the school this morning to investigate. This is an ongoing investigation. Counselling support is being provided. These are serious allegations that need to be dealt with in a sensitive manner,” WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said. 

Dr Shaheda Omar, clinical director at the Teddy Bear Foundation, explained that when children are exposed to sexual assault, they become traumatised and there are short-term and long-term effects of sexual assault.

"The implications would require psychological support and there’s no timeframe regarding the psychosocial support. Children would require immediate containment because there’s confusion, lack of understanding, a myriad of emotions, fear, panic, and guilt. The (initiator) would also require long-term psychosocial support to address impulse issues.

"What we see in many children who grow up and have not received any intervention or psychosocial support, these children would manifest behaviours of becoming victimisers themselves, perpetuating the cycle of abuse.

"When children are under 12-years-old the Child Justice Act, looks at diverting children away from the criminal justice system, giving children a second chance in life. Preventing them from being subjected to secondary trauma. When a child has committed an act, interventions are provided to both child initiator and child victim. The process of restorative justice looks at victim offender mediation, where possible the victimiser apologises to the victim and giving the opportunity to express or articulate the emotions and the feelings that the victim is actually faced with and unable to comprehend or process. The idea is to look at healing not just of the victim but also the victimiser to prevent, disrupt or break the cycle of abuse."

Cape Times