Dead Baby Found In Bag Of Student From Oprah Winfrey's School

Oprah Winfrey's school in South Africa, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, has been rocked by a tragic scandal. ABC News reports that a dead baby was found in the bag of one of the school's students. According to their report, "the baby's body was found last Wednesday in a bag the 17-year-old girl brought to a hospital where she was being treated for excessive bleeding, police Lt. Col. Lungelo Dlamini told ABC News in a statement." ABC News also found that charges have not yet been filed in the case as the investigation proceeds.

The Hollywood Reporter explains that there has been "no word whether the baby had been murdered or died of natural causes."

Scandal isn't new to Oprah's school. The ABC News story reports, "shortly after the all-girls high school opened in 2007, a school matron, Virginia Tiny Makopo, was charged with sexually molesting several girls. At the time Winfrey flew to South Africa to offer a personal apology to the students and their parents, citing her own experience with sexual abuse." And E! Online explains that "in March 2009, four pupils were expelled and another three suspended for alleged 'inappropriate behaviors,' which were said to include 'sexual misconduct,' toward other students."

Comments

[Avi C]

04:45 AM on 02/20/2011

Without seriously analysing the issue itself, I am a little surprised as to why people should be expected to help people from their own country over others.

[Osapient1]

08:43 PM on 02/19/2011

Maybe they thought Oprah was hungry...

[Sinister Minister]

12:40 PM on 02/19/2011

What an astounding revelation. People in South Africa are much like people all over the world. Even when the super wealthy throws them a bone or two they remain the same people with the same problems.

Apparently following a system that prides itself on having a few individuals achieve mass wealth and then dole it out to the rest of the suffering doesn't change people for the better like the Reagans of the world would like us to believe.

Not unlike our prison system, not all individuals are changed for the better by it.

[NinaIsReadingThesePosts]

12:25 PM on 02/19/2011

I meant Stay not say... Sorry, I get aggravated and the typos begin.

[NinaIsReadingThesePosts]

12:24 PM on 02/19/2011

It's completely insane. Yes, it's her money. To do with as she pleases. But our Country is in a crises and Oprah knows this. I believe U.S. Money should say on U.S. Soil. And anything Non U.S. Should remain such. How are we ever going to get out of this hole that has been created if we praise helping third world countries when our own country suffers tremendously? Our children don't have much to look forward to right now. It's so sad. Oprah has done a lot for our own but I still believe that it's not enough. We are over populated and in a crises with job creation. Keep the charity to the locals and if and when we pull out of this disaster then pick up where we left off with helping "Others". It's not just her either, I mean everyone who is a U.S. Citizen contributing to making other countries more united and comfortable.

We have a high number of Unemployed, homeless, and starving people/families. And millions of children with absolutely NO FUTURE. Put your money where it's most deserved right now. I get sad every time I see commercials asking for money to feed the hungry in other countries. I've NEVER seen a commercial asking for money to help feed our own. So sad.

This country is Backwards!

[nativemama]

12:59 PM on 02/19/2011

Reading your posts is hard but I guess someone has to do it.
You agree that it "is her money. To do as she pleases"....then you say BUT and then you lose me.
Oprah fell in love with So.Africa when she visited and met Mandela and wanted to build the school. Made everyone there happy....but not you, obviously cause you are thinking only about yourself..
What about going after other billionaires and millionaires of this country to do what you suggest. Have you tried? You say she has not done enough. I am happy that she is who she is....meaning she does not care a bling what people like you think. SHE DOES AS SHE PLEASES. We agree there.
You personally....what about working towards collecting money for commercials asking for money "to feed our own". Why wait for some one else to do it?
Ask those Republicans for some money to go towards the already living. Ask them to bring our jobs back into this country. Ask them to care more about people first and money last. Ask them to really care about bringing down the deficit and not just pretend that they are fiscally conservative.
Let Oprah be Oprah. She is not an elected official.

[Fred Moore Jr]

03:59 PM on 02/21/2011

Is it asking too much of Oprah to reach back to and help her own people? I don't have a problem with what she is trying to accomplish with the all girls school in South Africa. It is commendable and even exemplary of her. And maybe she is helping da 'hood in her own discrete way. I think she just gets a lot of unwanted and undue scrutiny because she is who she is. Haters stop hatin', and Oprah, consider giving back to some local folks if you're not doing so already.

[cdnbystander]

08:33 PM on 02/19/2011

The first world stole from the third world to develop their wealth. Yet you have the audacity to complain that the third world asks for help now.

[EnlightenMe]

01:30 AM on 02/20/2011

Fanned and fav'ed. :)

[no exit]

11:56 AM on 02/19/2011

This is tragic indeed, but it has nothing to do with Oprah. It may have escaped the notice of the author, but just about every week a dead baby turns up in an American high school or college. These girls need sex education and birth control, that's right tbagglicons, BIRTH CONTROL, and a big jar of condoms in every lavatory, male's and female's.

[joshu]

11:55 AM on 02/19/2011

This is not terribly unusual for tropical africa where abortions are not easily obtainable and are expensive to lower class girls. The stigma is also great. It is sad but many girls will carry babies to term, that they would have aborted, then throw them somewhere after birth. like in an abandoned well. or an outhouse toilet.

[nativemama]

12:33 PM on 02/19/2011

Could have fooled me. For a moment I thought you were writing about some communities in Kansas.

[GetoffMylawn]

11:53 AM on 02/19/2011

So what exactly did Oprah do to the baby?

[nativemama]

12:35 PM on 02/19/2011

Good question ....cause Oprah has always wanted a child!!!!!!!!
Fanned.

[whatwasthat]

11:25 AM on 02/19/2011

We need to remember the incredible good that this academy is doing for the other hundreds of girls enrolled in it. The education of the girl child in much of Africa is very important and badly needed. It will change their lives.
But does that mean that life wont happen? This could have easily happened in a school in the US, or India, or New Zealand. Anywhere with teenagers.

[childeharr]

11:24 AM on 02/19/2011

The comments attached to this story are glibly self-righteous. How on earth can Oprah, the entertainer, be found culpable for any of the impropriety or tragedy outlined here? Inappropriate behavior occurs in every institution in this (and every other) nation. Imagine if we personally vilified every principal or CEO whose students or employees engaged in ilicit behavior, without their knowledge. For you parents, imagine if you were dragged over the coals for everything your kids did, without your knowledge? Oprah Winfrey did a good thing in opening this school. South Africa is a nation that still has a staggering amount of illiteracy, poverty, and unemployment. The fact that this school has interrupted some of these deficiencies, to some degree, is not a bad thing. Where possible, CEOs, principals, parents, and Oprah can try their best to control the impropriety that occurs in any institution or offer concessions when these things happen. But, to imply that an owner of any institution can control people's behavior to the point where occurrences like these never happen, is impossible. If you dislike Oprah, the person, just state that. But, don't criticize her by holding her to a standard that is humanly impossible. This is not fair, and it negates the overall good that so many of her gestures have promoted.

[Kim Visan]

11:16 AM on 02/19/2011

It's Oprah's money and her choice, but I don't understand why she didn't help out poor little girls in the USA.

[danusgram]

11:48 AM on 02/19/2011

You beat me to this. I agree whole heartedly with your post. Considering the fact that she grew up poor in the US and so many girls here could benefit from being trained to be leaders

[dirigentin]

11:51 AM on 02/19/2011

somebody's going to criticize her, regardless of where she puts forth assistance. But everybody can do something -- help out in your community. Sign up to mentor or tutor.

[Sunflo]

11:07 AM on 02/19/2011

It's just all round tragic. Maybe she was raped or she could've just gotten pregnant by a boyfriend,wanted hide it & to remain in the school (who know's what their policy is on such matters) and was frightened out of her mind. I can't imagine how horrific it is to carry around a dead foetus.

[ritchie123]

11:04 AM on 02/19/2011

Dead babies happen.

[kevinbr38]

10:45 AM on 02/19/2011

Yes, these sad events befell a student at Oprah's school. No, they have nothing to do with Oprah herself. This goes to gender disparity, sexism, and in some cases the shame that girls feel upon being raped and becoming pregnant in South Africa.... Precisely the issues that Oprah's academy are trying to address.

[danusgram]

11:50 AM on 02/19/2011

I would think helping to legislate laws would be more effective than a school trying to change things.

[nativemama]

01:06 PM on 02/19/2011

Now Oprah would be allowed to get into another country and change it's laws? Why? Easier to do there than in WA. DC?

[cdnbystander]

11:10 AM on 02/20/2011

Knowledge is power, and with a good education these girls can help change their own country.

[redd35]

10:38 AM on 02/19/2011

Yeah Oprah, how this working out for you! No schools for all the young black women in America, who need you desperately. Instead, you go half way around the world and help out another culture and find out, you might wanna know how they get down, before you invest. Love your business acumen, but you have to re consider your approach to young black people, we need you too!!!! South side of Chicago, would have been a great start. South Africa, not so much!!!!!