South African police fire rubber bullets to disperse protesters outside school

 

Police fired rubber bullets to help disperse a large crowd of parents who gathered outside a middle school in Randfontein, South Africa to protest possible acts of racism at the school.

According to two South Africa-based media outlets, a fight broke out on February 11 between a group of black students and white students.

A local education department official is currently at the school investigating the incident.

“The SMT (school management teams) and SGB (school governing body) deplore the behavior of individuals involved in the incident at school on Friday,” Gauteng Education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi said.  “The school and SGB have already started to investigate the incident and will continue to do so. We want to assure you that the guilty parties will be punished in terms of the SA Schools Act and the code of conduct of the school,” the school administration posted on Facebook.

“We are here as parents to hear what has been going on; what procedures have been using? There is nothing that has been done for the past years. It’s not only this school. There are so many other schools where children are not allowed to have phones. Kids are complaining every day. We are sick and tired. Racism, racism,” one of the parents told SABC News.

As Lesufi was inside the school meeting with the governing body and the principal, a large contingency of private security tried to keep pupils within the school premises and protesting parents out.