Alleged sex pest gets his principal job back

Council to consider further harassment, cash-misuse inquiries

● A high-school principal fired for being drunk at work and sexually harassing a colleague will return to his job this week and collect more than R600,000 in back pay.

But Michael Koopman, who has been in charge of Bellville Technical High School in Cape Town since 2014, is not out of the woods yet.

An arbitrator who ordered the 59-yearold be reinstated after clearing him of the harassment charge and who said dismissal was too harsh for the drunkenness offence, has reported him to the South African Council for Educators (SACE).

Jacques Buitendag, of the Education Labour Relations Council, wants the professional body for teachers to investigate two other allegations of sexual harassment, after Koopman allegedly touched and kissed a colleague’s breasts.

The initial harassment charge was dismissed on technical grounds by the chair of Koopman’s disciplinary hearing “without hearing the merits of the complaints”, Buitendag said.

Buitendag, who is also a director of South African Employment Law Services, also wants SACE to reconsider a R30,000 fine Koopman received after being found guilty in January last year of misconduct involving another female colleague. Buitendag said he would have imposed a more severe sanction.

The arbitrator also said the disciplinary inquiry chair recommended a forensic investigation of alleged mismanagement of school finances involving Koopman. “It appears to be a matter that is unresolved,” he said.

Buitendag reinstated Koopman after ruling there were inconsistencies in the evidence and behaviour of the woman complainant, who also said the principal grabbed her from behind, pressing his erect penis against her buttocks for several seconds.

Koopman denied the allegation and said he was taking beta blockers, which had given him erectile dysfunction.

Buitendag said the woman’s statement that she felt “embarrassed, hurt and disgusted” conflicted with evidence that she later sent Koopman texts containing heart emojis and calling him an “amazing boss”.

At Koopman’s disciplinary hearing the woman testified that when she went to his office to show him an e-mail on her laptop, he made her sit on his lap. The woman said she felt embarrassed and did not report the 2018 incident as she feared losing her job.

In the other incident, the woman was on her knees looking for a flash drive she had dropped when Koopman put his foot on her back and refused to let her get up. When she asked him what he was doing, Koopman, who has been a teacher for 36 years, laughed. The incident embarrassed her and left her feeling degraded, she said.

The woman also complained that at times Koopman would “make silly jokes, have slurred speech and would smell of alcohol”.

During the arbitration, over six days last year, Koopman denied making advances to female colleagues or being drunk on duty. He claimed the woman, a school governing body member, had conspired against him.

Buitendag said he was not impressed by Koopman as a witness due to his evasiveness, his failure to take responsibility for his actions, blame-shifting and his refusal to take the arbitrator into his confidence. However, he found the sacking on the sexual harassment charge unfair because the chair of the disciplinary hearing did not appreciate the significance and impact of the complainant’s inconsistent evidence.

He upheld the drunkenness charge, saying the education department “presented sufficient evidence to prove that the applicant was under the influence of alcohol at school on more than one occasion”.

Though this was a serious offence, “what must also be considered is that [Koopman] clearly has an alcohol abuse problem. This is an illness that he sought rehabilitation for during December 2019.”

Buitendag said an employee who reports for duty under the influence of alcohol or drugs may be charged with misconduct. “Whether such an employee should be considered for counselling or rehabilitation depends on the facts of each case.”

Western Cape education department spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said SACE “will investigate if there was a breach of their code of professional ethics”.

If it finds Koopman guilty, sanctions it can impose include a caution or a reprimand, or a fine not exceeding a month’s salary — R52,263 in Koopman’s case — and his removal from the department’s register, meaning he would be barred from teaching.

Attempts to contact Koopman were unsuccessful.

Hammond said the outcome of the disciplinary hearing had been forwarded to SACE but the body had not yet concluded its process. The department had yet to receive the report from Buitendag, she said, and was therefore unable to comment.