Oprah Winfrey’s South African girls’ school is facing another sex scandal. The first time was in the fall of 2007, just months after the school’s opening. A matron was accused of sexually abusing more than a dozen students. Oprah flew down to South Africa to handle the situation herself, firing the headmistress and all of the matrons and vowing to “clean house from top to bottom”. Oprah also gave all of the girls cell phones with Oprah‘s own number.
This latest scandal does not involve the staff of the school, so at least Oprah’s conscience is clean on that one. Seven students have been suspended for displaying “inappropriate behavior”, intimidation and sexually harassing their fellow students. A spokewoman for the girls’ Academy says that the girls were suspended for breaking the school’s code of conduct regulations. The Telegraph has more:
The South African school established by Oprah Winfrey has been hit by its second sex scandal in two years, with seven pupils suspended for displaying ‘inappropriate behaviour’ towards other children.
The girls were suspended last week for the alleged sexual harassment of fellow pupils at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy School For Girls in Henley-on-Clip, near Johannesburg.
According to the Afrikaans on Sunday newspaper, one 15-year-old “preyed” on a schoolmate and coerced others into lying to officials investigating the alleged incidents.
Six other pupils have been excluded from the $46 million (£32 million) girls-only boarding school after being alleged to have touched each other intimately, or “intimidating others into partaking of inappropriate behaviours”.
A letter sent to one of the suspended girls’ parents is said to have read: “You have been found guilty of physical contact of a sexual nature with another pupil on campus, harassment, bullying other girls on campus and of being dishonest by not telling investigators the whole truth”.
A spokesman for the Academy, which was established in January 2007, confirmed the suspensions. “It is because they contravened the school’s code of conduct,” said Lisa Halliday. Declining to elaborate on the circumstances behind the girls’ exclusions, she added: “We regard the incident as confidential.”
It is the second controversy to affect the school since its star-studded opening event – which was attended by celebrities including Mariah Carey and Spike Lee. Just ten months after the first pupils were admitted, 15 girls claimed to be victims of sexual abuse at the hands of a matron employed by the establishment. Virginia Tiny Makgobo faced 13 charges, including indecent assault, common assault, assaulting a minor to perform an indecent act and verbal abuse of pupils. She denied the charges and is due back in court on June 1.
On the back of the assault claims, a tearful Miss Winfrey – who has spoken of being a victim of abuse herself – said: “This has been one of the most devastating experiences, if not the most devastating experience, of my life. But like all such experiences there is much to be learned”.
She promised to “clean house from top to bottom”, firing the headmistress and all dormitory matrons, and giving schoolgirls mobile phones with her personal number pre-programmed into the memory.
“These girls are like my children,” she said at the time.
“That’s not just rhetoric for me. I take their futures and the possibility for what their futures hold very seriously.”
Miss Winfrey poured millions of dollars from her personal fortune into the school, which aims to educate 450 high-achieving female students a year by 2011.
Facilities at the high-security campus include a theatre, computer and science laboratories and a library, and the curriculum aims to empower students to become leaders of their society. As well as a high-level education, the TV host’s academy provides free food, uniforms and learning materials for its underprivileged intake.
From The Telegraph
I hope Oprah doesn’t get slammed for this – this inappropriate behavior by a student (or multiple students) could have happened at any school, anywhere. It’s not as bad as the first abuse scandal, where those abusers were actually being employed by Oprah. This current scandal is like a more hardcore, horrible version of Mean Girls. It sounds like the school acted in a timely manner to remove the girls who were the problem, but I’m sure we’ll be hearing more details about this in the days to come.
Wow, it looks like not everything Oprah touches turns to gold.
This school to me is no different from when a celebrity starts a clothing line.
They start it for the title, they don’t do the actual work that goes into designing and making the clothes.
Oprah just paid money, I highly doubt she had extensive background checks run.
Yeah I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about it too..from Oprah.
@Sakota: I remember reading an article in South Africa’s YOU magazine last year on a student that left the school few months after she was admitted because she was home-sick. The gist of the story is of irrelevance to this article, but one interesting aspect highlighted in the front page story is that at least twice a month, the students have satellite conferencing with Miss O herself. Apparently they discuss general stuff and openly talk about things that are bothering them and so forth. It’s a little something like ‘group therapy’ of sorts.
Also, Oprah visits the school every time she is in SA. If my memory serves me well, last year Oprah came here twice times. In 2007, she was here four times (the third time was because the school was hit by the sex scandal). She also encourages all the students to call her anytime they have growing pains, or matters they are not comfortable discussing with the school officials on hand.
So, Oprah didn’t just dish out the money for the school. If anything, she is extremely involved in the schools day-to-day running although she is thousands of miles away.
As involved as she can be, and that’s pretty respectable considering her busybusy life.
As a South African I’m horrified – not the way to get future investment going in our country, especially around much needed education – grumpy with the silly girls and especially with the media for blowing it all out of proportion!
I agree with Kaiser and Margs on this one. It’s inappropriate for students given such a wonderful opportunity and has happened in other places as well. The media needs to let it go and let the school handle the issue.
I went to a really good boarding school in a neighbouring country, Nelson Mandela is(was?) on the school’s board. But shit went down regardless, which is inevitable; kids that age, being around each other 24/7. If it hit the media everytime there was a scandal my school would have been shut down. However, its really not the school or the admin that’s to blame, its the kids, and the occassional rotten teacher. Honestly I feel like i can say that cuz I’ve lived it.
I see that at least one of the girls, who no doubt was a victim of the first scandal, has acted out in this manner. I hope also that Oprah isn’t held accountable, but gets the girls the counciling they need.