Watch School Ties on M-Net

The four-part docuseries, School Ties is centred around the grooming and sexual abuse of learners at some of South Africa’s most prestigious boys’ schools from Thursday, 16 May on 21:00.

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Rather than sensationalising the details, the series focuses on expert interviews with child protection experts to help parents identify tell-tale signs of sexual abuse from their children.

The docuseries further unpacks the history of elite institutions that in many cases acts as a breeding ground for these behaviours and speaks to the law enforcement team involved in investigating the wide-ranging abuse that occurs at schools across the country.

“In creating School Ties, there’s no desire to simply create moral panic, but rather to highlight an urgent issue. Nobody can change the psychology of predators and those who engage in the grooming of children, however, our hope in sharing these very personal accounts is to create a space where children, parents, educators and schools have the information to identify the possible scenarios where inappropriate behaviour might take place before it happens, and to feel empowered to strengthen their systems as much as possible,” says producer Wim Steyn.

As a result, School Ties aims to bring into focus the solutions and interventions that need to be adopted to safeguard learners at schools. Although the tragedies that have occurred are heart-breaking, there is the opportunity to ensure that we address and relook systems that should be protecting scholars.  

Watch School Ties on at 21:00 on M-Net (DStv channel 101).

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