A dismayed parent has resorted to withdrawing his 12-year-old son from a local private school after he was allegedly assaulted by his rugby coach during training.
According to the father, whose identity must be protected along with that of his son in terms of legislation and the Press Code, the incident happened on 14 May before the start of a match just before 4pm.
“Just before the start of their match, my son and the rest of his team were warming up and were on their way to the field where they had to cross over a blue boundary rope. One of the boys was short and decided to lift the rope and go underneath it and the rope hit the coach between his legs. The coach turned around and beat my son with a clipboard,” the outraged father explained.
However, the school alleged that the child and three other learners had caused an injury to the coach by acting carelessly. “In turn the rugby coach retaliated,” said Marthie van der Wat, Brand Sales and Marketing Manager of ADvTECH.
The boy suffered a bruise to his right arm during the incident.
His father vented that because no treatment was provided to his son after the incident, they had to seek private medical attention.
“No medical assistance was offered to my child and there was not even a simple ‘sorry’ from the school itself,” he lamented.
During the interview, the boy stated that no apology was offered to him by either the school or coach.
Van der Wat defended the school by stating that the child was informed that he would have to report to the Head of the Primary School after the match, [but] after the match the child reported the incident to his parent and the father became extremely upset and aggressive towards the staff.
“The incident was reported to Mr van Zyl ( the Executive Head) who immediately made contact with the parent, who was visibly upset by what he termed was ‘assault of his child’. He also informed Mr van Zyl that he was going to lay a charge with the police,” she explained.
The father in fact told the Northsider that he had taken his child to the police station to press charges against the coach.
“After waiting for Honeydew Police from 4.30pm to 6pm we were told to rather take my son to the station and open a case there, which we did,” he said.
The Northsider approached the Honeydew Police for comment and the station commander, Brigadier Anesh Maharaj, confirmed that an investigation against the coach is under way.
“The suspect was traced but was not found at his home. However, he has been dismissed from the school. The investigation is ongoing,” he said.
When the school was asked about their intervention in the matter, Marthie stated that the school had fired the coach. “Mr van Zyl and the deputy principal of sport met with the coach and informed him of the allegation. Though his version of events was different from what was offered by the parent, the school terminated his contract with immediate effect,” she explained.
“On 15 March, the parent informed Mr van Zyl that he had withdrawn his child from the school, notwithstanding the fact that the coach in question was no longer in the employ of the school.
Unfortunately, Mr van Zyl’s attempt to appease the father was unsuccessful,” Marthie explained.
The father, who was unhappy with the outcome, advised that he had found a replacement school for his son under the same education group as the previous school.
The youngster has since been admitted to new school. He sadly admitted that he misses his friends from the previous school.
