Protesting KZN high school pupils demand smoke breaks

S7wede said:
I can give you a bit more insight into what is happening as they are one of our neighbors. It's not as cut and dry as the article wants to make it out to be. While the students have made some demands, they are being coached by some members of the faculty that are unhappy at the current state of affairs regarding management and the appointment of HOD posts.
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See now this is problematic. Regardless of the smoking aspect (which i would have had my arse handed to me if I had been caught at school doing), you have teachers who are coaching these students for ulterior motives that aren't related to the teaching of the children... The teachers may have valid complaints in relation to the management and how HOD posts are given, but those complaints should never in a million years end up involving a student strike coached by teachers.
 
ToxicBunny said:
See now this is problematic. Regardless of the smoking aspect (which i would have had my arse handed to me if I had been caught at school doing), you have teachers who are coaching these students for ulterior motives that aren't related to the teaching of the children... The teachers may have valid complaints in relation to the management and how HOD posts are given, but those complaints should never in a million years end up involving a student strike coached by teachers.
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Believe me, they don't have valid complaints. They are racist opportunists. The new principal is only a year old and was not part of the school until his placement there recently from the department, so he heavily relies on the existing management to help him understand the internal politics of the school. The instigators are all junior staff who have only been there for under 5 years or so who believe the only reason they haven't been placed into HOD positions is because of the racist management. This is a very Indian area, with the school being 50/50 Indian and Black learners, with the majority of the staff and management being Indian.
 
S7wede said:
Believe me, they don't have valid complaints. They are racist opportunists. The new principal is only a year old and was not part of the school until his placement there recently from the department, so he heavily relies on the existing management to help him understand the internal politics of the school. The instigators are all junior staff who have only been there for under 5 years or so who believe the only reason they haven't been placed into HOD positions is because of the racist management. This is a very Indian area, with the school being 50/50 Indian and Black learners, with the majority of the staff and management being Indian.
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Then those instigators need to be identified by the Education department and dismissed immediately for interfering with the students education....
 
S7wede said:
Therein lies a problem in itself. If you had any idea of the shambles that the KZN Doe was in, you wouldn't want them to become involved.
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Oh I know the shambles... both my folks are ex teachers and I still know a few teachers... KZN DOE is a cesspit of nepotism and incompetence and jobs-for-cash and and and.... SADTU are at the centre of it all as well as far as I'm aware.
 
They refuse to come to class if their demands are not met. If we had tried this when I was at school you could be guaranteed you would not be coming to class and your demands would definitely not be met. :laugh:
 
Flanders said:
They refuse to come to class if their demands are not met. If we had tried this when I was at school you could be guaranteed you would not be coming to class and your demands would definitely not be met. :laugh:
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All the schools demands would be met though... through your folks being dragged in and you getting a proper klap from your old man :D
 
Education department probably contemplating also subsidizing the cigarettes.
 
I thought part of the fun was sneaking around and avoiding teachers finding out. Where's the fun in being allowed to smoke openly?
 
At the school I attended, the hostel scholars were allowed to smoke after they reached the age of 16 if they got a letter of permission from their parents. That was in the 60's at the DHPS, a private school in Windhoek SWA/Namibia.
Our school toilets were in one corner of the school grounds, a bit apart from the rest of the buildings and during
breaks it was used as an unapproved smoking area. One day someone who was driving past the area thought the building was on fire and called the fire brigade.

Those were the days to remember.
 
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Arthur said:
It's time to drop this puritanical opposition to smoking at school.

Why not allow it, for heaven's sake?

After all, until the mid-1960s some (white) government high schools in SA allowed matrics to smoke. In Joburg, KES, St John's (a private school) and Parktown had Prefects Smoking Rooms.

Until the late 70s many Canadian high schools allowed smoking during recess. It was not unusual to see students and teachers smoking together. Neither was it uncommon in England and Australia, and some parts of the USA.

In the 1980s I visited friends near Munich, and the local high school allowed smoking during break. It was no big deal.

Surely we enlightened moderns can leave the decision to high school seniors.

Roseville Secondary School should designate a pupils smoking area near the cabbage patch.
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LOL Are you saying South Africa should go back to the 20th century - where it belongs?
 
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S7wede said:
I can give you a bit more insight into what is happening as they are one of our neighbors. It's not as cut and dry as the article wants to make it out to be.
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I've heard another angle. Can you please comment?
The learners are already smoking plenty and feel entitled to be taken seriously just because (???). They want a designated time 8-9am to smoke weed to get them through to lunch break otherwise the school day starts too early and is lidderally unbearable.
 
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