CAPE TOWN - "We're incredibly frustrated because, everyone here, we were gathering peacefully," was the word from protestors at Milnerton High School where police officers used stun grenades and tear gas on Wednesday.
READ: Tear gas fired at protestors outside Milnerton High School
"We were not violent. There was no risk. There are more police officers here than I have ever seen in Nyanga and Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain."
"Why are all the police officers here and why are they not allowing us to protest peacefully?" Justice Desk Africa's Jessica Dewhurst said.
Activists, members of the public, and political party representatives gathered at the school to demand answers from administrators following the release of a video showing the assault of a child.
In the video, a Grade 10 pupil is beaten with a hosepipe, a belt, and a hockey stick by several other pupils.
Milnerton High School principal Gert JP van Tonder announced the precautionary suspension of the eight implicated pupils.
The victim’s family has accused the school of failing to act when the matter was first reported last Thursday.
Outside the high school, Dewhurst said, "if you abuse someone, you get expelled. The students need counselling, the parents need counselling and we need stricter rules."
"There's a culture of violence and that needs to stop."
"There are many testimonies that have come forward about the incidents that have taken place at this school," South African National Civic Organisation's (SANCO) Buntu Gwija told assembled crowds.
Gwija accused the school of protecting the perpetrators and demanded immediate action on the case.
Justice Desk Africa has reportedly written to the Western Cape Commissioner for Children to open a case against the perpetrators of the assault.