Alexander Sinton Secondary School
| Alexander Sinton Secondary School | |
|---|---|
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| Address | |
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Thornton Road, Crawford Cape Town South Africa |
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| Coordinates | 33°58′33″S 18°30′45″E / 33.9759°S 18.5125°ECoordinates: 33°58′33″S 18°30′45″E / 33.9759°S 18.5125°E |
| Information | |
| Motto | Vel Primus Vel Cum Primis (" If not the best, amongst the best") |
| Established | 1951 |
| Founder | Alexander Sinton |
| Status | Open |
| Principal | Adela Domingo |
| Number of students | 1,100 |
| Website | sinton |
Alexander Sinton Secondary School, also known as Alexander Sinton High School, is an English-medium school in Athlone, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. The school is located in the Cape Flats, an area designated as non-white under the Group Areas Act during apartheid. 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 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.
The school was named for its benefactor Alexander Sinton, who bequeathed money to found the school in 1951.
During the youth uprising of 1976 protesting the imposition of the Afrikaans language as a mandatory medium of instruction in schools, the students at the school and Belgravia High School nearby in Athlone boycotted classes on 16 August during a period that saw marches, random acts of arson and battles between students and the police. 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.
Internal resistance to apartheid intensified, and a state of emergency was declared in parts of the country in 1985. The Committee of 81, a student organisation representing coloured schools in the Western Cape 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. Some teachers resigned their positions and others were confused as to their role. The Teachers' League of South Africa, 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.
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