I have to admit, the latest escalation in the unfortunate series of events surrounding the initiation that occurred at Parktown Boys’ in February caught me by surprise. I had assumed that, after the raft of disciplinary hearings, counselling sessions, rehabilitation programs and the intervention and subsequent satisfaction of the Department of Education, that the story was finally over. So I really did not expect what happened yesterday, when 11 Matric students from the school were arrested and formally charged with assault.

Frankly, I think this is insane. What the boys did was wrong, I don’t think anybody disputes that, but I don’t believe it was sufficiently wrong to warrant being criminally charged with assault, nor do I believe this is fair after they have already been through a disciplinary process that satisfied the Department of Education.

But let me offer some background for those who might be new to the story. Late at night on February 2nd, twelve Matric students roused fourteen Standard 9s from their beds in the hostel and sneaked them out to a quiet part of the school where they carried out a traditional initiation practice to supposedly welcome them as boarding seniors. During this, the Standard 9s had to strip naked and apply Deep Heat to their genitalia. They also had to run a gauntlet made up of the twelve Matric students, each one wielding a bat or hockey stick, who hit them one by one on the rear as they passed. Once through this gauntlet, the Std. 9s were considered to have ‘graduated’ as seniors of the boarding house and were permitted the privileges that seniors enjoy such as having their own toasters and kettles in their rooms.

Needless to say, the whole thing was unnecessary and stupid, and falling back on the excuse that it’s a tradition that has always been done this way is insufficient justification. Times have changed and what used to be acceptable is no longer so. But does it meet the severity of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, the crime for which the boys have been charged? I don’t think so. There was clearly no intent to cause lasting harm, with all the Matrics having been through the same process in their Std. 9 year and evidently believing they had suffered no adverse side-effects. And from what I’ve heard from those involved, the process was voluntary with an option to sit it out. By all indications, this was not some malicious attempt to bully younger students, but rather the sort of silly over-the-top taken-too-far after-hours nonsense that pretty much all boys-only boarding schools get up to. Trust me I know; I went to one. This seems to be borne out by the fact that the rest of the Std. 9s who were initiated have refused to testify against the Matric students and are all apparently overwhelmingly supportive of them.

But the key thing to remember here is that once the school found out what had happened, through a parent informing the deputy headmaster, it did the right thing. The Headmaster ordered an immediate investigation and disciplinary process to uncover what had happened and punish those responsible, as the school has long had a formal ban on initiations. They discovered that no teachers had been involved, but the twelve Matrics readily admitted culpability and went through a round of disciplinary proceedings, many losing privileges in the process and were sent through rehabilitation programs. The Department of Education was involved too at some point, unfortunately placing a gag order on the Parktown Headmaster in the process, but evidently waking away happy that justice had been served and that sufficient steps had been taken to prevent a re-occurrence of the event. The first of these steps occurred before Pene Kimber, the mother of the boy who complained, took her story to the press and caused a media uproar.

It was after this stage that this should have ended. Justice had been served, the school had forcefully re-iterated its policy against initiation and done what it could to prevent it from happening again. To take this further, and charge these boys with a severe crime in a move that seems motivated entirely out of a desire for revenge seems to me to be a step too far and distinctly unfair on those involved. Not only are they a week from their prelims and a mere couple of months from writing their finals, but the consequences of this for their future lives and careers could be disastrous. Even if their sentences are relatively light, the criminal record would disallow them from being able to pursue certain careers in law and accounting, would count against them in any other employment scenario and would prevent them from being able to apply for visas to travel to countries like the US and UK. Further, even if they are acquitted of all charges, their names and faces will almost certainly be printed on Friday and will forever come up in Google searches by future employers. These are enormously serious charges, and I honestly wonder if Pene Kimber is fully aware of the harm she is causing here.

I’m glad the initiation practices have come to an end, but I can’t support what these twelve young men are now being put through. I hope they are acquitted of all charges.

Darren (http://commentary.co.za/archives/2009/06/03/the-parktown-boys-initiation-saga)