Pupils allegedly torch Durban school over confiscated cellphones

[wbot]

Back to my earlier question - a traffic cop pulls you over and requests you hand your cellphone over, do you do so?

Come on man. My phone is not prohibited in my own car. Phones are prohibited at this school. Teachers can confiscate prohibited items whenever they want and so can police.

 

[Kosmik]

The school confiscated the phones because phones are prohibited. They have every right to confiscate any item that does not belong at school. Police held on to it because there is no safe space at the school. Schools have every right to work with police.

Not for the removal of personal possesions. The parents should have been contacted to take the phones when the child leaves school or the phone handed back at the time. By handing it to the police, it removed the item from the jurisdiction of the school, changes the whole thing from confiscation.

And quite frankly if the phone is stolen/broken, tough.

 

[Kosmik]

Come on man. My phone is not prohibited in my own car. Phones are prohibited at this school. Teachers can confiscate prohibited items whenever they want and so can police.

Police cannot confiscate "prohibited" items NOT deemed so by law.

Do folks not understand the concept of civil vs criminal?

 

[Gyre]

Come on man. My phone is not prohibited in my own car. Phones are prohibited at this school. Teachers can confiscate prohibited items whenever they want and so can police.

There is a bylaw that states a traffic cop can request/confiscate your cell phone under reason that they suspect it was used maliciously, and there is a release cost involved.

Where is the clause at the school that cell phones will be handed over to the police?

 

[wingnut771]

There is a bylaw that states a traffic cop can request/confiscate your cell phone under reason that they suspect it was used maliciously, and there is a release cost involved.

Where is the clause at the school that cell phones will be handed over to the police?

Yes, it was wrong to take the phones. Bad school management, as one could just make the kids put their phones in a box at the front of the classroom when starting class then fetch it afterwards, simple. Still doesn't justify the arson response.

 

[borro]

View attachment 1377867

Wonder who they are liberating themselves from this time? Themselves? Their futures? Oh wait.. they already threw away their futures when they aligned themselves with the ANC.

This is actually just usual behavior, go read up how many schools were broken into, vandalized & burned during lockdown. Hint: thousands..

This is learned behavior, no consequences for your actions, that they learn from their parents and their elders.
Then everybody cries when Africa comes stone last in the world. Poor us, just look at how we're suffering..

Probably your fault)

 

[mojoman]

Yes, it was wrong to take the phones. Bad school management, as one could just make the kids put their phones in a box at the front of the classroom when starting class then fetch it afterwards, simple. Still doesn't justify the arson response.

SOP here when something bothers you...

 

[Gyre]

Yes, it was wrong to take the phones. Bad school management, as one could just make the kids put their phones in a box at the front of the classroom when starting class then fetch it afterwards, simple. Still doesn't justify the arson response.

I agree with you, I was just highlighting that the police being involved was unnecessary and strange

 

[porchrat]

No such thing as black and white morality, I agree they should face court but there is no one size fits all solution, especially with minors.

Agreed. Leave the penalties up to the more informed minds of out legal system. Which is why I haven't spoken to specific penalties.

Cool, and the rest? They can go back to bad teachers, poor education, toxic environments? Nobody cares coz the arsonists are locked up right? That is how you get more arsonists....

You mean you care about the school and your money more than you care about kids, or any kid? And you wonder why a kid who knows that nobody cares about them resorts to burning a classroom down? It just sounds like at the end of the day you don't' care regardless of any way this goes, and you not caring actually doesn't fix anything?

Both examples are murder, but they are vastly different scenarios, which is why it'll be left up to a court to judge on an individual basis.

I agree with you and I never said it was yours or my responsibility - I just said there is more to it.

They'll vote in people like you, who cares more about tax than the kids? Who treats every arsonist exactly the same, regardless of age and circumstances? And once the arsonists are locked up, go back to NOT caring about their circumstances? As pointed out, nobody cares about them at all, so voting won't help - so why hold it over them like a dangling carrot?

When you burn nothing, you lose nothing.

The article is about kids torching buildings in response to having their phones confiscated (an entirely out of proportion response). It's not about the general dysfunctional state of the education department and local governance.

We all know there are more systemic problems. They're just out of the context of this act and this article. These kids burnt buildings down. It's wrong regardless of circumstance. They should face consequences.

As to the idea that voting differently won't help. I don't see how anybody can say that considering it has yet to be tried in three bloody decades. You say the current lot don't care. I agree. Vote in those that do care... or you know, just keep doing what we've been doing for 30 years which obviously results in misery then burn it all down... I know which option gets my support... but I can't make the change. I'm too small. It requires the community to make that change.

I also never claimed we should treat all arsonists the same regardless of age or circumstance.

 

[porchrat]

I agree with you, I was just highlighting that the police being involved was unnecessary and strange

I think we all agree on it being strange. Only thing I can think of for it being necessary was the school doesn't trust the staff not to nick the phones and they didn't have space to store them securely. As long as the cops return all the phones, and are responsible for any damage or loss should it arise, and don't try to access them, I don't see harm in this behaviour. Cop shop just being used as a place to store the phones securely by the school.

Just go fetch the phones from the cop shop after school and then take the school to task for their actions as a community in a civilised manner.

Don't burn the bloody place down. That helps nothing.

 

[wbot]

Bit more detail

KZN pupils go on rampage, torch school after police seize cellphones, weapons and drugs | News24

Pupils at a high school in KwaNdengezi in KwaZulu-Natal have torched their school in anger after police conducted a search and seizure operation and seized cellphones, weapons and drugs.

www.news24.com

 

[porchrat]

I think we all agree on it being strange. Only thing I can think of for it being necessary was the school doesn't trust the staff not to nick the phones and they didn't have space to store them securely. As long as the cops return all the phones, and are responsible for any damage or loss should it arise, and don't try to access them, I don't see harm in this behaviour. Cop shop just being used as a place to store the phones securely by the school.

Just go fetch the phones from the cop shop after school and then take the school to task for their actions as a community in a civilised manner.

Don't burn the bloody place down. That helps nothing.

I forgot to add to this.

The cops should also at no point be charging a fee to release those phones. The inconvenience of having to fetch that phone after school from the cops should be punishment enough. These kids are poor enough as it is.

I don't however think the school is in the wrong confiscating the phones. If you're caught with the phone at school, and that item is not permitted on school grounds, I have no problem with the school confiscating the phones. The kids know the rules.

We had similar rules when I was in high-school. If you had a phone it stayed off and in your bag. If you were caught mucking with it it was confiscated and you got punished.

 

[Thugscub]

I'm not defending them, I'm saying they never burnt down a school, they burnt down a useless daycare center, a mini Hillbrow.

Most, if not all forumites here never gave a **** about the teachers having sex with students, the teachers not pitching up, the teachers pitching up drunk, the bribery to raise report marks, the kids carrying drunks and weapons through school - but oh no, the students burnt down a few classrooms in this useless place.

I ran and managed outreach programs for these kids, these kids that came from everywhere and had nothing, just so they could get some sort of education and a lot of them were incredible kids - they just had no opportunities. They were willing to give yup their night times to further their studies because their schools are such fkups, so so I don't exactly feel ad that these same shitholes are burning down, especially this one.

And when a teacher does PK a stupid little ignorant useless brat the teacher is in trouble.
The issue is useless ignorant stupid parents who imbue no respect for themselves or their useless offspring.

 

[PrimeSteak]

Well it all depends on why the phones were confiscated really... If its a flimsy bollocks reason then the SAPS are responsible for this ultimately.

This. I don't get why the police had to confiscate the phones for the sake of the school not allowing phones at the school (if they had another valid reason that would be fine)? So I can understand the frustration/outrage from the pupils...

But, the kids of course weren't right in BURNING DOWN THE ****ING SCHOOL OVER IT.

 

[PrimeSteak]

If your school is a sht!hole, you won't feel too bad about burning it down.

Nah, still doesn't justify it, man.

Also, nobody touches my phone, and they apparently took 400. The government gangsters created this situation.

It's fine if you are outraged/frustrated about it but to BURN DOWN THE SCHOOL over it? Really?

 

[Gyre]

Nah, still doesn't justify it, man.

It's fine if you are outraged/frustrated about it but to BURN DOWN THE SCHOOL over it? Really?

As stressed in my posts, this place barely passed as a school in my eyes with how much they got away with. Not cool burning stuff down, not cool what they are doing to the kids either.

 

[Vrotappel]

If a kid is selling drugs, carrying a knife and burning classrooms, what kind of parents do you think they have at home?

One that still supply cell phones.

 

[Vrotappel]

I don't want you to do anything, I'm saying the brain dead behavior is the result of the brain dead system and brain dead expectations.

Nah, just brain dead voters and criminal politicians.

 

[Corelli]

I hope the phones was in the school when they burnt it to the ground. THEY DESERVE THAT.

Guess no school for them, just give them the child grant till they old enough for the 350 buck grant.

 

[2023]

Two schools in Wynberg, Cape Town charge this. SACS its R250

No idea if its enforced though. One headmistress said it depended on what it was being use for. In the classroom definitely not. If an extra-mural activity was cancelled and the pupil needed transport, a different story

To charge them R250 to get their cellphone back sounds like extortion.

Do kids get 'fined' for other rules broken?