Oprah wept at learning of school assault

Section: Education

Celean Jacobson, Associated Press Writer

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Oprah Winfrey said Monday she wept after hearing that a dormitory matron at her school for disadvantaged girls was accused of indecent assault on pupils, hours after the woman was freed on bail.

Though she said she was not responsible for hiring at the school, Winfrey said the screening process was inadequate and "the buck always stops with me."

Tiny Virginia Makopo, 27, faces 13 charges of indecent assault, assault and criminal injury committed against at least six students aged 13-15 and a 23-year-old at the school.

"When I first heard about it I spent about a half-hour going around my house crying," Winfrey said at a news conference.

Makopo said she was innocent when the charges were read during a bail hearing in Johannesburg, and the magistrate allowed her to go free on a bond of $450. Makopo, who was arrested Thursday, was not asked to enter a formal plea.

The school announced Oct. 17 that a dormitory matron had been suspended amid allegations of serious misconduct.

The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls said it had hired private U.S. and South African detectives to investigate, as well as reporting allegations to the South African police.

Winfrey answered reporters' questions in South Africa through a satellite link teleconference from the United States later Monday, according to her Chicago-based Harpo Productions Inc.

Winfrey opened her Leadership Academy for Girls outside Johannesburg on Jan. 2, with celebrities such as Tina Turner and Spike Lee in attendance, as well as former President Nelson Mandela.

The lavish $40 million school was the fulfillment of a promise she made to Mandela six years ago and aims to give 152 girls from deprived backgrounds a quality education in a country where schools are struggling to overcome the legacy of apartheid.

"What I know is is that no one — not the accused nor any persons — can destroy the dream that I have held and the dream that each girl continues to hold for herself at the school," Winfrey said. "And I am prepared to do whatever is necessary to make sure that the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls becomes a safe and nurturing and enriched setting that I have envisioned, a place capable of fostering a full measure of these girls' productivity, creativity and of their humanity."