Should teachers be allowed to sue pupils?
I was reading today about the lawsuit against three teenagers who manipulated a picture of their school’s principal and his deputy by superimposing their heads on a gay porn picture and then passing it around to other students. Former Waterkloof High School vice-principal Dr Louis Dey is suing them for R600 000.
These kids say that the whole thing was a joke and they didn’t mean to defame anyone. Or course Dr Dey disagreed, as did an Educational psychologist, Dr Susan Kriegler. She testified that adolescents were not yet fully developed intellectually or emotionally, had trouble distinguishing between fantasy and reality and acted impulsively.
I should add here that the kids are: Hennie Le Roux, 18, Christiaan Gildenhuys, 19, and Reinhard Janse van Rensburg, 19 and that this all happened a year ago or so.
With the current state of our education system and total lack of decent punishment for pupils who cause trouble, it is little wonder that they got sued. But is it right?
In this day and age, kids think that they can do as they please without repercussions. In the past, if pupils had done such a thing, they would have been expelled from the school. All that happened to this lot was that they got demerits and had to go and clean animal cages at the zoo for a period of time. Is this an adequate punishment?
Should a teacher resort to the courts for something a pupil has done against them? According to Dr Dey’s lawyer Mike Maritz, just because he was a teacher, it did not mean he had fewer rights, or that pupils could make fun of him. Judge Ben du Plessis agreed, but said they should be expected to be exposed to children’s naughtiness. He went on to say that the case was difficult as one did not want to encourage teachers to take children to court.
I think that Dr Dey has a perfect right to sue them. It is about time that these kids learn that they need to have respect for authority and that there ARE consequences to their actions.
What are your opinions?
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October 18th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
This is not an easy one to solve. If I was the judge, I would have cast out the case. I agree that it is not right what the children did. However, they are old enough to know what they were doing and legitimate for punishment. I just get the feeling that the teacher realizes that the parents of these children might be wealthy and he is using this opportunity for his own benefit. I feel that other forms of punishment would be better, as it is their parents that would get the punishment and not them. They are still young and adequate punishment would do the trick. Children can be very naive and I think there is still room left to appreciate that it was wrong and that it is possible that they did not fully comprehend the consequences. This whole ordeal would be enough punishment not to engage in such an offence again.
October 19th, 2008 at 11:19 am
A lack of discipline is evident around all corners. I know the principal of one of the best schools in the coutry from varsity. Discipline becomes much more to difficult to exercise. He spent days in court as a result of the allegations of a child, fuelled by his uninformed parents. I say yes. If there is room and reason to sue, SUE them.