Disgraced St John's College geography teacher Keith Arlow, who appears to have gone to ground, was strongly condemned by the nation this week for making racist comments to black, Indian and Greek pupils — and rightly so. Unbelievably, the teacher, who has been in the profession for more than 30 years, tried to justify making these insensitive remarks by saying that they were meant to highlight "the absurdity of stereotyping people". South Africans cringed after hearing his comments to his black pupils, that they were getting good marks because they sat next to white pupils.
Another scandalous remark to a black pupil, who achieved top marks in a test, was: "You disappointed the blacks by getting a good mark." His comments beggar belief.
What aggravated the situation was the school's lack of decisiveness in dealing with the race row. While outraged South Africans bayed for Arlow's blood, St John's was apparently prepared to allow him to continue teaching despite the hurt he had caused to the pupils and their parents. He was let off the hook with a final written warning for making racist and derogatory statements.
In what many believe was a face-saving measure, the school parted ways with him, saying its relationship with him had "irretrievably" broken down. However, the truth, despite a denial from the school, is that Arlow would probably have remained at the school had it not been for the intervention of Gauteng MEC for education Panyaza Lesufi, who hates racism and has vowed not to give racists "space to breathe". He needs to take a bow for taking decisive action by demanding the removal of Arlow. Not mincing his words, he told principal Paul Edey that he was "not fit and proper" to lead the school.
Alarmingly, a racism storm also erupted at another Gauteng school — Klipspruit West Secondary — this week when members of the predominantly coloured community barred pupils from the school in protest against the appointment of a black principal. They were demanding the appointment of a coloured principal. The scourge of racism has to be stamped out.
We applaud Lesufi for his efforts in rooting out racism in our schools.
