Copyright 2009
From Jonathan Stein To KDHS Class of 1969
I want to relate three events that happened at King David between when I was twelve and thirteen.
Event #1. Standard Five King David Primary School. This was the year of my pre-pubescence and the year before my Barmitvah. I, with seven other boys, was given permission by my parents to go for a weekend camping trip at Witpoortjie with Jannie Jantzen one of the favorite primary school teachers who introduced the trampoline to the school. While we were not sworn to secrecy then and I don?t want to out the other kids who went to the event, I feel compelled to note for the annals of the KDS Legacy of the child sexual abuse that happened unashamedly at Witpoortjie. The first event in the hut where we were staying as soon as we arrived, was the following ignominious game. A coin was placed on top of a pile of baking soda which Jannie pulled out of his duffel bag. Each kid as well as Jannie took turns in removing a pinch of baking soda from the pile. If the coin moved while the pinch of baking soda was removed, that boy or Jannie had to take off an item of clothing. Eventually all the kids and Jannie were stark naked (kaalgat) at which point this was followed by the subsequent yanking of the fellow?s member who allowed the coin to move by the next fellow in line to pinch the baking soda. Jannie was truly a bunny. Although I knew as a 12 year old that I could never speak to my parents about this act, the concept of homosexuality as a phenomenon was totally out of my consciousness at that time. I relate this to record this child abuse at KDS for posterity.
Event #2. Form 1 King David High School. I was chosen to be in Form 1 FF, considered by Mr Sandler to be the premier Latin learning class. The BOSS arrogantly always chose to teach this class Latin. This was the only class this pompous ass ever taught at KDHS. He had no compunction in telling us that we were the crème de la crème to be in his Latin class and the big favour he was doing for us by being our teacher, wearing his black undergraduate frock when he taught. The other Form 1 Latin class was taught by Dr. Thomas. At the end of the term we had a common exam with the second form 1 Latin class. Horrifyingly for the BOSS, the other class, taught by Dr Thomas did hands down better in the test than his special class. The BOSS was livid and instead of his reflecting on his less than adequate skills as a Latin teacher he chose the collective punishment of ordering all the boys in Form 1FF to his office for caning (flapping).
Event #3. Stanley Weiner came to visit me last week and asked me if I was seeing spiders yet. In this light I have the following episode to relate to you about the BOSS. I had misspoken or done something in class to gain the opprobrium of the BOSS who decided it was worthy of caning. Incidentally, we all knew that he had supernatural powers and could make us see a spider in front of our eyes whether there was a spider evident or not. It was his power over us. I was told by him to bend over and he flapped me once. He then asked me if I could see a spider. Not willing to concede to his scorn, I, replied that I could not see a spider. Of course he flapped me another time for not seeing the spider. He then asked again do you see a spider. I again responded in the negative and was again flapped. After the third time with the rest of the class totally aghast that I appeared to be asking to be flapped, this masochist, this insult to the teaching profession quit asking about spiders.
While the BOSS and Jannie are not here to defend themselves for their other actions, I cannot let them get away with their abusive and sadistic acts that they perpetrated on us Jannie was a bunny but I did not need to go through a mind trip about homosexuality as a twelve year old. The Boss was a wicked sadist who was not a very good Latin teacher. I shared this information with Lindsay Leveen a week ago and now I share it with you all. With the passage of time, my memories of my schoolmates are all happy.