A primary school teacher in George has been sus­pen­ded by the West­ern Cape Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment pending an invest­ig­a­tion after allegedly post­ing a video in which a grade one pupil was mocked for not being able to afford a pie dur­ing a school fun­drais­ing ini­ti­at­ive.

In the video, which has since gone viral on social media after it was pos­ted in a school What­s­App group, the teacher can be heard allegedly taunt­ing the child and instruct­ing his class­mates not to share their pies with him. 

The Herald reports that children can be seen eat­ing at their desks while the little boy cov­ers his eyes.

Angry par­ents and com­munity mem­bers pro­tested out­side Them­balethu Primary School yes­ter­day, demand­ing the teacher’s dis­missal.

The video, ori­gin­ally recor­ded by the teacher and shared in the class’ What­s­App group, quickly spread online.

Edu­ca­tion Dis­trict South­ern Cape Region dir­ector Jewel Jonkers said the alleged incid­ent viol­ated the Pro­tec­tion of Per­sonal Inform­a­tion Act.

She told the par­ents the teacher had been sus­pen­ded and that dis­trict psy­cho­lo­gists and coun­sel­lors would sup­port the child and his fam­ily.

The West­ern Cape Department of Edu­ca­tion said the teacher had later bought a pie for the pupil, which was given to him after the humi­li­at­ing video was recor­ded.

Full report in The Herald