Abstract:

Court of law judgements are at times a puzzle to the school communities. At times warring parties approach the court of law to litigate or seek remedial action. According to the law, the approach of seeking answers from court of law is not deemed a desirable one especially at school level as parties could amicably resolve their differences. Out of pride or ignorance courts of law are approached, at times to the detriment of either party. This research paper employs a qualitative research approach to cross-examine the perceptions of school principals against the selected court of law judgements in a South African schools settings. Data is collected by means of one-on-one in-depth interviews and case law. Sixteen school principals were selected using a purposive sampling method. Two courts of law judgments based on school policies (religion and culture policy and learner pregnancy policy were analysed against perceptions of school principals. Data was analysed using a Thematic Data analysis. Themes that emerged from the analyse demonstrate that school principals are yet to understand the implications of court of law judgments and to amend their school policies as suggested by the court of law rulings.

Keywords:

Judicial judgements, school communities, school policies, litigate, puzzle.