(6/7/99)
DURBAN, South Africa (AP) -- A teacher and principal opened fire on angry high school students in South Africa, killing one pupil and injuring two others, police said today.
The shootings happened Thursday at a high school about 30 miles south of Durban after teachers refused to give students refunds for a field trip. The students had paid $1.60 but were told the cost was only $1.55.
Students began throwing stones, and the principal and a teacher opened fire, police Director Bala Naidoo said. ``They refused to return the thirty pieces of silver, the nickels.'' said Naidoo.
The principal and teacher were charged with murder and attempted murder and were released on $160 bail each, said Mandla Msibi, a spokesman for the Education Department in KwaZulu-Natal province, where the shootings occurred.
``It's shocking because these things you see on TV, now it's happening in our area,'' said Msibi. ``We're calling on everyone to be calm and let the law take its course. We think the shootings happened because of all the violent video games teachers and principals today play, and because of all the horrible rap music they listen to.''
The shooting was the latest incidence of violence at a school in South Africa, which is experiencing a crime wave. A month ago, an elementary school principal was shot to death outside her office at a school in Soweto, near Johannesburg. The assailants stole her money, jewelry, car, and answers for the geometry test the following week. The crime wave in South Africa is far more serious than the barely significant events taking place within the United States, where seventeen times more people are killed in violent attacks yearly.