JONATHAN JANSEN: The deadly business of going to school in a war zone
Danger and trauma stalk teachers and pupils in the Cape's gang lands, and nothing is being done to help them
Imagine you send your son or daughter off to primary school and you do not know whether the child will come home alive at the end of the day. Throughout the day your child hears gunshots around the school. It is so bad that the school has to install bullet-proof walls to prevent injury or death as a stray bullet might hit one of the more than 1000 children on the inside. After all, children have been shot on their way to and from school, and sometimes even inside the schools of the area. There are moments when the children have to duck, fall flat on the floor and stay there until another round of shooting nearby has stopped. Until the shooting restarts and the children drop to the floor again, some crying openly out of raw fear that their lives could end at any moment. Recently it got so bad that teachers were seriously traumatised. One had a heart attack and another a stroke for which they remain in hospital. Children plead with their teacher parents: "Please do not go to school. I...
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