Aggravating situation

I READ Hamilton Petersen’s article, (September 22) with a feeling of warmth, knowing that the Brian Isaacs issue hasn’t been forgotten or swept under the carpet, as Debbie Schäfer may be wishing, until I reached the paragraph where he says that Schäfer attended the ceremony in which Harold Cressy High School was declared a heritage site.

Her eulogising of Edgar Maurice, who probably turned in his proverbial grave, and also of Victor Ritchie. My mood changed to one of anger. Not at Petersen, let me say. I felt anger that she was invited to this very special event in our educational history. And by “our” I refer to the disadvantaged schools of South Africa, not “previously disadvantaged”.

If Debbie Schäfer has the authority to just dismiss Isaacs, then uses it to pander to the whims of Ms Murray, principal of Sans Souci, except for their ethnic learners who are victimised, what does that say about her?

I also ask of Debbie Schäfer, as Petersen does, are you aware of the rules and regulations of schools like South Peninsula, Athlone High, Harold Cressy, Livingstone High, etc? Here, let me point out to an earlier letter writer – these are not privileged schools as he alleged, we all struggled to send our children to these schools, we were disadvantaged during the apartheid regime, and now the supposed “democratic South Africa”.

I was bemused to see the Verwoerd article as I remember travelling home from Harold Cressy, on the top of a double-decker bus, where we were forced to sit. Across one of the buildings, which had a ribbon of news running across it, reading that this very man had been assassinated.

My friends and I fell apart laughing. We didn’t know why, but I suppose deep down, we realised that someone who was so evil had died. Sandra Thomas Claremont