AMOTHER has pulled her son out of a top Joburg school after he exposed a brutal midnight initiation ceremony he and friends were forced to undergo.
Pene Kimber made that decision this morning after taking her son home last night amid fears that he would be victimised by some of the boys and teachers at Parktown Boys' High School
On the day of the initiation ceremony, Grade 11 boarders were dragged out of bed at midnight, stripped naked and tortured until some of them bled.
Matric boys used cricket bats, hockey sticks, golf clubs and a whip to beat the victims.
Kimber said this morning that she had received a phone call from the school telling her that because she had spoken to the media, two Grade 12 boys had lost their university bursaries.
Kimber said she was also going to lay a charge of assault at the Hillbrow police station and would be removing her son permanently from the school.
Education spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele said that Minister Naledi Pandor condemned any initiation ceremony.
"Initiation is a form of abuse and it can traumatize children. The department asks schools to try and ensure by all means that this practice does not occur."
Kimber told The Star of her son's serious injuries … and his story of what happened that night.
After being dragged out of bed, the boys were made to stand naked on a field.
Next a bottle of Deep Heat was passed around and they were made to put it onto their genitals.
One matric held a cricket bat, another a hockey stick and another a golf club.
The victims went to 11 different matrics, receiving a smack on their backsides, before going to the head boy who whipped every Grade 11 boy, hitting them on their lower backs and buttocks until he drew blood.
Apparently the ceremony was the price the Grade 11s had to pay to bring a kettle into their hostel room.
"My son stood in a line and he told me that he could hear the boys in front of him screaming," said Kimber.
Kimber says her son was badly bruised when she saw him a week after the assault, which took place on February 2.
He was also cut open where the whip had lashed him and he was bleeding. He had not healed five days later and was still bleeding from the attack.
"His underpants were sopping with blood. What makes it worse is that they didn't give them anything to close the wounds so it kept on seeping and sticking to their underpants, so that every time they took the pants off it opened up the wound again," Kimber said.
Kimber took her son to Sunninghill Hospital where a doctor filled in a report.
This said that her son had "extensive bruising and abrasions consistent with an assault with a blunt object".
After repeatedly calling the school, Kimber was sent an e-mail by the deputy headmaster, Brent Saunders.
He told her: "This practice is totally prohibited by management, a fact which has been communicated to the boarders on numerous occasions."
Saunders indicates the Grade 11s' view was "that they had willingly participated and they felt it had been a growth in their relationship with the Grade 12's.
"I pointed out in no uncertain terms that team building in this way was not positive at all."
A hearing with the Grade 12s concerned took place last Friday and Kimber was sent another e-mail telling her about the punishment they received.
This included: counselling, community service, they would have their Grade 12 privileges removed for one term and they would get a written warning.
This was not good enough for Kimber, who says her son is the one who needs counselling.
She is also concerned about the teachers her son told her knew about the incident.
A teacher allegedly gave the matric boys the key for the pool and another one told them after the incident: "If you let this out and tell anyone I will personally f*** you up one by one".
She said that another parent had apparently called the school to complain about the incident and the Grade 11 boys were then made to run 15 laps around the rugby field for "tittle-tattling".
Headmaster Tom Clarke said last night that "the boys got up to lunacy and nonsense and had been disciplined".
He said that the hostel was run separately from the school through the Parktonian Foundation.
A committee of parents had met last night to discuss the issue and all had been resolved.
Kimber met the Grade 11s yesterday after the school set the meeting up.
She was told there by some boys that they "were glad this happened" and they didn't want to report the matter, especially as many had not told their parents about the incident.
"I got the feeling that the boys were told what to say," she said.
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