New pupils told school motto is 'Fit in or f*** off', says boy
The Star has video footage of a Parktown Boys' High School teacher holding a stick while a teenager stands against the blackboard waiting to be hit.
In the grainy footage, taken with a cellphone, a boy, laughing, hits another pupil with all his might, while a male voice in the background encourages the boys in school uniform to hit each other.
This footage was given to The Star by a teenager who was forced to leave the school a few years ago after he was allegedly assaulted. The young teens in the video are now matric boys.
This teenager, who spoke to The Star on condition of anonymity, described numerous abuses of the pupils at the school by both the matric boys and the teachers, who sometimes looked on while they were being assaulted.
The boy named numerous initiation practices and abuses that take place at the school year after year as part of the school's culture.
The teenager, for instance, said the matrics often urinate into balloons and throw them onto the other boys or force the boys to do such strenuous exercise that they throw up.
"Every sport has an initiation ceremony," he said. "Rowing, for instance, puts boys into steel bins and throws them into the pool where they have to get out themselves.
"Many teachers know they can't hit the boys, so they tell the prefects to sort out their problems. The motto you are taught when you first go to the school is 'Fifo - Fit in or f*** off'," he said.
The boy said he was beaten so badly that he was covered in bruises across his back and ribs. A teenager watching the incident said nothing.
The teen also witnessed his classmates being put into steel bins that were then flattened with steel poles, and boys being given "wedgies" until their underpants tore. One boy in his class lost a testicle because of a wedgie.
He also refers to the matrics' 40 days - the last 40 days of the school year when it is said that no matric can be expelled because they are about to write their exams.
"The matrics go wild because they know nothing can happen to them. The whole school is on alert."
When his mother took the matter up with the headmaster, she was told that it was a once-off incident and it wouldn't happen again.
Not satisfied with the answer, his mother laid a complaint with the SA Human Rights Commission and took her son out of the school.
"I am too scared to reveal myself," the teenager said. "Parktown Boys' has an extensive old boys' network and I could be killed anytime I set foot in a club or a mall. When I left the school, the deputy headmaster told me I had better watch my back because he can't do it for me."
Since the news of the initiation ceremony broke, The Star has been inundated with letters, SMSs and calls from parents reporting similar experiences with their sons. They are all too scared to come forward because of threats to their sons' lives.
One mother said her son was beaten so badly that he had to be admitted to hospital, and when she tried to complain to the Department of Education, her pleas were treated with scorn.
"(Headmaster) Tom Clark proudly told me they use corporal punishment in the school, and he has never had any problems from the Department of Education."
The mother, whose identity is known to The Star, asked not to be named.
Blogs on Facebook have been surfacing, threatening the boy who reported his initiation to his mother.
Comments included "Initiation produces men not girls, we are proud to wear our blazer" and "The lilshit that ran to his mommy must grow up". One blog threatening the teen came from an old boy who was at the school 26 years ago.
Another blog on the Internet is from an old boy who was at the school between 1986 and 1990. He reports the same type of treatment then, encouraged by the teachers.
"It was done to us, so we'll do it to them. It builds character," the blogger said. He writes that he was hit by senior pupils and teachers, had "piss bombs" thrown at him and was forced to hit his friend in the face - "something I am still ashamed of".
Clark said many parents had correspondence between him and them because every time there was a complaint, he responded to it. "Every time something comes up it is dealt with by the school."
He added there was a culture of violence among the youth that schools could not deal with. "There is a culture of bullying that schools can't cope with. Nobody goes into education with the desire to hurt others."
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