Alexander Sinton Secondary School, also known as Alexander Sinton High School, is an

English-medium school An English-medium education system is one that uses English language, English as the primary medium of instruction—particularly where English is not the mother tongue of the students. Initially this is associated with the expansion of English f ...

Athlone Athlone (; ) is a town on the border of County Roscommon and County Westmeath, Ireland. It is located on the River Shannon near the southern shore of Lough Ree. It is the second most populous town in the Midlands Region with a population of ...

, a suburb of

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, South Africa. The school is located in the

Cape Flats The Cape Flats ( af, Die Kaapse Vlakte) is an expansive, low-lying, flat area situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town. The Cape Flats is also the name of an administrative region of the City of Cape Town, which lie ...

, an area designated as non-

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

under the

Group Areas Act Group Areas Act was the title of three acts of the Parliament of South Africa enacted under the apartheid government of South Africa. The acts assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a system of u ...

during

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

. The school was involved in the anti-apartheid student uprisings of the 1970s and 1980s. Staff and students at the school made headlines when they barricaded the police into their school in September 1985. The following month, three youths were killed near the school by police officers who opened fire on protesters in the Trojan Horse Incident. It was the first school to be visited by

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

after his release from prison. As of 2014, the school has 1,100 pupils, half boys and half girls. The school employs 40 teachers and six non-teaching staff.Our School
, Sinton.co.za, retrieved 17 August 2014

Founder

The school was named for its benefactor Alexander Sinton, who bequeathed money to found the school in 1951.

1976 uprising

During the youth uprising of 1976 protesting the imposition of the

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

language as a mandatory medium of instruction in schools, the students at the school and

Belgravia High School Belgravia Secondary School, also known as Belgravia High School is an English-medium school in Athlone, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. History The school was founded by six people on 21 January 1957 when it was called the Athlone Secondary ...

nearby in

boycotted classes on 16 August during a period that saw marches, random acts of arson and battles between students and the police.Western Cape Student Uprising
SA History online, retrieved 19 August 2014 In 1976 Nabil ("Basil") Swart, a teacher at the school, was arrested after helping a student who had been shot during the protests. Swart was released on bail after being detained for a weekend.

1985 protests

Internal resistance to apartheid Internal resistance to apartheid in South Africa originated from several independent sectors of South African society and took forms ranging from social movements and passive resistance to guerrilla warfare. Mass action against the ruling Nat ...

intensified, and a

state of emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...

was declared in parts of the country in 1985. The Committee of 81, a student organisation representing

coloured Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...

schools in the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

which organised student boycotts and protests, held some meetings at the school in 1985. The school effectively stopped teaching from February and was officially closed on 6 September when the government ordered more than 400 schools to close as a result of

civil unrest Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance, civil unrest, or social unrest is a situation arising from a mass act of civil disobedience (such as a demonstration, riot, strike, or unlawful assembly) in which law enforcement has difficulty ...

. Some teachers resigned their positions and others were confused as to their role. The

Teachers' League of South Africa The Teachers' League of South Africa (TLSA) was an organization for Coloureds, coloured teachers founded in Cape Town in June of 1913. The group, while originally focused on issues surrounding education, became increasingly political in the mid-1940 ...

, a professional association for coloured teachers, encouraged its members not to resign for the sake of the children. Teachers decided to teach, but not to co-operate with the authorities. The school defiantly re-opened on 17 September 1985 when the principal, Khalied Desai, led teachers, uniformed students and parents who sang protest songs. The police were aware of the students' plans, and arrived quickly. The students threw stones, built barricades and the police replied with armoured vehicles,

tear gas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ...

rubber bullet Rubber bullets (also called rubber baton rounds) are a type of baton round. Despite the name, rubber bullets typically have either a metal core with a rubber coating, or are a homogeneous admixture with rubber being a minority component. Alth ...

s and the arrests of nearly 200 people. Teachers and parents supported the students and their protests against injustice. After the arrests were made, the police were surprised to find that they themselves were effectively prisoners, as the exits from the school were blocked by vehicles brought there by protesters outside the school. The police had difficulty taking away the people they had arrested. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' noted that the action taken by coloured teachers and students at the school was remarkably different to the boycotts taking place at

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

schools. Swart was again jailed for two weeks in 1985 for helping to re-open the school. The state of emergency was extended to include Cape Town on 25 October 1985, giving the police and army greater powers to deal with instability in the area. Swart was again jailed for eighteen months in 1986 for his involvement in the school unrest.

Trojan Horse Incident

On 15 October 1985 three male youths, aged 11, 15 and 21, were killed by the police nearby in Belgravia Road in Athlone in what was called the

Trojan Horse The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...

Incident. Students and activists had gathered where they regularly had battles with the police and were stoning vehicles. Most of the people in the crowd were from the school. Police officers who had been hidden in crates on board the back of a truck opened fire on stone-throwing protesters. The police had deliberately provoked the protesters to allow them to shoot – the truck was driven down the same road twice as the police did not get the anticipated reaction the first time, i.e. stones being thrown at them. A

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

television crew witnessed and filmed the incident and images thereof were broadcast to the world. An inquest found that the police had behaved "unreasonably", but despite a private prosecution no sentences were imposed on the people involved. A

Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...

hearing was held into the incident in 1997, after the end of the apartheid era. A memorial marks the spot where the incident took place. It shows a silhouette of the Trojan Horse vehicle and the people who shot the three young people. The memorial also officially includes graffiti sprayed on the fence that includes the message "Stop State Violence".

Other controversies

In 2012, the then principal Fazil Parker was involved in a dispute with the

Department of Basic Education The Department of Basic Education (DBE) is one of the departments of the South African government. It oversees primary and secondary education in South Africa. It was created in 2009 after the election of President Jacob Zuma, when the former Dep ...

after he was given late notice that his teachers needed to mark national exams. The teachers considered the request unreasonable and did not comply with it, resulting in Parker being summoned to a disciplinary hearing.Teachers can’t cope with 'extra workload'
Ilse Fredericks, Nov 2012, IOL online, retrieved 17 August 2014

Notable alumni

Ronald Harrison Ronald Harrison (18 March 1940 – 28 June 2011) was a South African artist most well known for his thought provoking 1962 painting ''Black Christ''. Life Harrison was born on 18 March 1940 to Jeanette and William Harrison in Athlone and he alw ...

, artist and activist who created the ''Black Christ'' painting banned in South Africa.

References

External links

Video – The Trojan Horse Massacre, Cape Town South Africa, October 1985
Chris Emerson, CBS, 15 October 1985
Memorial to the Trojan Horse Incident in Cape Town

The people armed, 1984–1990
South African History Online {{Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa) 1985 in South Africa 1985 riots Events associated with apartheid Protests in South Africa Riots and civil disorder in South Africa Schools in Cape Town Educational institutions established in 1951 1951 establishments in South Africa Athlone, Cape Town 1980s massacres in South Africa 1985 murders in South Africa