I was reading today about the lawsuit against three teenagers who manipulated a picture of their school’s principal and his deputy by superimposing their heads on a gay porn picture and then passing it around to other students. Former Waterkloof High School vice-principal Dr Louis Dey is suing them for R600 000.

These kids say that the whole thing was a joke and they didn’t mean to defame anyone. Or course Dr Dey disagreed, as did an Educational psychologist, Dr Susan Kriegler. She testified that adolescents were not yet fully developed intellectually or emotionally, had trouble distinguishing between fantasy and reality and acted impulsively.

I should add here that the kids are: Hennie Le Roux, 18, Christiaan Gildenhuys, 19, and Reinhard Janse van Rensburg, 19 and that this all happened a year ago or so.

With the current state of our education system and total lack of decent punishment for pupils who cause trouble,Gucci Handbags, it is little wonder that they got sued. But is it right?

In this day and age, kids think that they can do as they please without repercussions. In the past, if pupils had done such a thing, they would have been expelled from the school. All that happened to this lot was that they got demerits and had to go and clean animal cages at the zoo for a period of time. Is this an adequate punishment?

Should a teacher resort to the courts for something a pupil has done against them? According to Dr Dey’,Wholesale Chanel;s lawyer Mike Maritz, just because he was a teacher, it did not mean he had fewer rights, or that pupils could make fun of him. Judge Ben du Plessis agreed,Mulberry replica Handbags, but said they should be expected to be exposed to children’,Replica Chanel;s naughtiness. He went on to say that the case was difficult as one did not want to encourage teachers to take children to court.

I think that Dr Dey has a perfect right to sue them. It is about time that these kids learn that they need to have respect for authority and that there ARE consequences to their actions.

What are your opinions?