Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash

This white teacher in South Africa has been suspended after allegedly threatening to give her students “something to protest about” and “kneel on their necks”.

Sonya de Vynck, who taught art and life orientation at Pinnacle College Kyalami, in the Kyalami area on the outskirts of the city of Johannesburg in South Africa’s Gauteng Province, has been suspended after her alleged threats made in reference to the death of George Floyd.

De Vynck reportedly told her students in an online class: “If you don’t hand in your practice drawings when we get back, then I will give you something to protest about, and maybe kneel on your necks.”

Pinnacle Colleges chief operating officer Christo de Wit has now confirmed the teacher has been suspended as a full investigation is underway.

The teacher has since apologised, saying she never “wanted to offend” the students or George Floyd, whose case she was seemingly referencing.

She added: “I would never – I know you need time but just know that I am not a person like that, I am not a racist person. I would never have done that. It was a silly thing that popped into my head.”

School administrator De Wit said in a letter to parents that the school’s principal, who has not been named in reports, had “chosen to take special leave after reflecting on the pace and manner of the first response to the reports”;

He said the school’s management was meeting with the pupils who were affected and an investigation is ongoing.

Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer has sparked worldwide protests against racism and inequality.

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