After an attempted rape took place at a local school in Grahamstown this year, many female pupils at Mary Waters High, including Elam Yanta, refuse to use the bathrooms at school.

“There is this common misconception that sexual violence only takes place late at night, in nightclubs and dark alleyways. But girls in South African are not even safe at school,” said Alley Christos, a television student at Rhodes University.

Christos and Yanta decided to go undercover at Mary Waters, to investigate a situation that has put the personal safety of female pupils at risk for the past eight months. But why are boys using the girl’s bathrooms anyway? And what are the school authorities doing about it?

This film is a collaboration between a third year television student at the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University and a learner from the Upstart Youth Development Project in Grahamstown, 2014.

Production by Alexandria Christos and Elam Yanta
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