The suspension of the Sans Souci Girls' High School pupil, who was slapped by a teacher in a video that went viral, was upheld at her disciplinary hearing yesterday, according to a News24 report. Her distraught mother said ‘they (Sans Souci) never cared about my daughter’, and claimed the principal called her aside before the hearing and ‘advised’ her to take her daughter to another school.

The pupil was suspended after a video of the slapping incident circulated on social media. In it, the pupil can be seen shoving the teacher, who retaliates by slapping the teenager across the face.

The pupil faces numerous charges, including intimidation by verbal and physical threat intended to harm a person; ignoring or failing to carry out specific instructions; actions which bring the school's name into disrepute; violating the rights of other learners to receive education by disrupting classes, preventing teachers from teaching; and violating the rights of the teacher to carry out their task to the detriment of the school, staff, teacher and fellow learners.

Earlier, Chamber of Legal Students representatives – the student's legal team – reportedly told News24 that they took on the case because they felt the school treated the pupil unfairly from the onset. Kwanda Mkalipi, co-founder and director of the legal group, said the teacher had no business getting into an altercation with a pupil.

Full News24 report