'Russian roulette' - pupil shot

A KZN schoolboy is on the run after allegedly shooting his friend during "a game of Russian roulette".

Durban - A schoolboy is on the run after allegedly shooting and injuring his friend at a Phoenix school during what has been reported as a game of Russian roulette.

The victim, Cameron Ganesh, 15, his father, police and a handful of Stanmore Secondary School pupils denied any knowledge of the lethal game having been played. Radio reports suggested this as the cause of the shooting.

However, school governing body chairwoman Josephine Naicker said: “We cannot confirm or deny it.”

Yesterday evening Cameron was wheeled into theatre at Netcare Umhlanga Hospital, where his parents, Ronald and Monica, had ferried him after becoming impatient with ambulance staff at the school.

“The ambulance staff were asking Umhlanga Hospital about finding a bed. Surely the first thing to do is to get him to hospital?” Ronald asked.

Naicker said the firearm - believed to have been a revolver - must have slipped through the search pupils are subjected to at the start of each school day.

The boy suspected of firing the shot immediately absconded and remained at large, said police spokesman, Major Thulani Zwane.

Naicker said the four pupils who had seen the shooting had received one-on-one trauma counselling. The rest of the school had been counselled in class sessions.

The school has 685 pupils.

Ronald said he received a call from the school at the Pinetown engineering firm where he and his wife work, telling him their son had collapsed from a blackout. They heard the full details only later.

Cameron was first treated by paramedics who took an hour to arrive at the school, he said.

On arrival at Umhlanga Hospital, he was attended to in the emergency section.

“They treated him for a flesh wound on his left shoulder,” Ronald said. “They showed us the X-ray. Around the cartilage you can see particles of metal. Maybe the particles are inside the joint. He was having problems moving around.”

The father added that the suspect was one of his son’s friends.

“We were shocked,” said Ronald. “We can’t figure out what to say.”

He added that their only child was a quiet boy who was not involved in drugs or gangs.

He said that “overall” Stanmore Secondary was a good school.

At the time of publication, Cameron had come out of theatre.

“They performed open surgery on his shoulder. They took out debris and shavings. He is in a lot of pain, but is stable,” his father said.

Earlier this year two videos showing violence and bullying at Stanmore went viral on YouTube.

In one, schoolboys in uniform were filmed pushing and kicking one another. In the other, a boy was kicked in the back.

A tribunal followed and a number of pupils were suspended.

Independent on Saturday

* E-mail your opinion to IOLletters@inl.co.za and we will consider it for publication or use our Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.

@IOL on Twitter

IOL News on Facebook