We the parent body of Parktown Boys High School, the boys, the staff and the Department of Education are involved with a problem that we all want to solve. An entire institution has to be turned around and a new culture created. Clearly it can't happen overnight, but Kevin Ritchie and Pene Kimber seem to be demanding dramatic gestures in order to prove that there is reform.
I presume for them this means firing staff, expelling boys and giving them criminal records. There are many ways to skin a cat, and progressive, thinking people believe these are not the best, being punitive, non-analytical and uninformed.
I am the parent of a Grade 12 pupil at the school who experienced initiation on entry into two of three of the sports that he joined in Grade 8. This was unknown to me and many parents.
When the story of Kimber and her son broke, I was horrified, as any sane parent would be. The thought of my child being hurt or bullied is horrible and the idea of my child inflicting pain is even worse (he never did). These feelings are shared by many of the parents at the school who want the violence and bullying to stop.
Why, then, have we not joined forces with Kimber (and by implication the Star)?
In my view there is something unsavoury about Kimber's pursuit of publicity. The problem is that Kimber wants to define and dictate the dialogue as if she is the only parent who has the answers.
Parktown Boys High has taken responsibility by refusing to punish the boys involved with inappropriate, harsh measures just to appear politically correct. Instead the school has taken a progressive stance by bringing in expert interventions - a fact unreported by The Star. Instead the head boy, prefects and boys concerned have been exposed to behavioural change programmes of depth and significance.
One I trust and endorse is the "Boys to Men" programme by the Mankind Project, which addresses perceptions of maleness and helps the boy remodel himself and particularly his responses to threat and a relationship with power and violence.
Stand up, anyone at The Star or any reader, who does not think this is a more useful, creative solution than expulsion and a criminal record. Within this context, unfortunately Kimber does appear to be vindictive, as the headmaster suggests.
Let Kimber stop this cycle of aggression by dropping the charges and allow a school which in every other way has provided the nourishment my son needed to grow into a person I admire, to reform itself.
At a time in our country when we are short of not just good schools but schools in general, is it Kimber's intention (and the Star's) to bring Parktown Boys High to its knees? Is Kimber the Shylock of our times? For an ounce of blood she'll have a pound of flesh? Where will her vengeful campaign end?
Clare Stopford
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