Mum fingers school for son’s horror woodwork accident

PUPIL injured during woodworking class at school.

The 17-year-old grade 12 pupil from Kwa-Komani Comprehensive School in Komani, Eastern Cape was injured when one of the machines cut through the fingers of his right hand during a woodwork project which was done during school hours.

He's now recovering at home.

The teen's family blames the accident on the shortage of protective gear, especially protective glasses.

According to the pupil, he was cutting wood for his door project, when sawdust got into his eye and when he tried to attend to it, he wounded his index and middle finders.

But when the teen's gogo reported the accident to the school, she was allegedly told there were 25 glasses available to be used by 31 pupils in the woodwork class.

Gogo said: "We were not notified about the shortage of glasses. I was also not told about the accident and only learnt about it from my traumatised grandson."

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On top of this, the school allegedly told gogo to contact the Road Accident Fund (RAF).

"They made fun of me and did not give me any support until I made this public, that is when they started acting like they care. I struggled to take care of my grandson as I had to travel to hospital until he underwent surgery.

"The school did not care to even ask for an update since the accident. The June exams are here, and I'm concerned that there's no provision made for him to write his June and trial exams," said gogo, adding that she reported the matter to the Department of Education.

Education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said the department doesn't have a policy regarding pupils who were injured at school.

"The district team from the department visited the school to find out more about the incident and proceeded to Frontier Hospital to visit the pupil. A social worker, school safety coordinator and psychologist provided specialised psychosocial support to the pupil until he was discharged," he said.

Mtima said counselling was also provided to the grandparents.

"Backup formal tests would be administered at an appropriate time suitable for the pupil to ensure he remained on par with his peers in terms of school-based assessment. However, the administration of these tests will be determined by the pupil's recovery from the injury," he said.