Pupil in school toilet birth: Dumps baby after solo delivery

By Loveness Bepete

BULAWAYO – A form three pupil at Sobukhazi High School in Bulawayo’s Mzilikazi suburb yesterday gave birth in the school’s toilet and tried to hide the baby behind the same toilet.

The pupil, 17, was rushed to Mpilo Central Hospital after a teacher discovered that she had just given birth.

The girl had earlier told her teacher during a lesson that she was not feeling well and was excused to go to the toilet.

The pupil’s parents are now late and she lives with her aunt.

The aunt, Sithembiso Ndlovu, yesterday said she once suspected that the teenager was pregnant, but she denied it.

She said she was still in shock as she had trusted her niece whom she described as a quiet child whose performance at school was average.

“The teacher heard cries of a new-born baby and interrogated the pupil (name supplied) who was standing at the door. She finally admitted that the baby was hers,” said Ndlovu.

“Earlier during the lesson, she had told her teacher that she was having stomach cramps. She was allowed to go to the toilet where she then gave birth.”

Ndlovu said school authorities rushed the girl to Mpilo Hospital adding that the pupil told her teacher that the baby’s father was in Nkayi.

She said she would not ask the girl about the matter alone and was waiting for her grandmother.

“She always denied being pregnant to me and her grandmother and whenever asked she would cry. She had gained weight but her stomach never had any noticeable changes and I never bothered her again,” said Ndlovu.

“The father of the baby is said to be in Nkayi, at the family’s rural home where she usually goes for holidays and I hope it’s not a herdboy because there are no young boys around except these herdboys.”

No comment could be obtained from the school’s headmaster. Chronicle