(NewsCore) - A dead newborn baby was found at Oprah Winfrey's girls school in South Africa, the South African daily The Times reported ...
(NewsCore) - A dead newborn baby was found at Oprah Winfrey's girls school in South Africa, the South African daily The Times reported Friday.
According to police, a 17-year-old student at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls gave birth to a child Wednesday and disposed of the body at the school, located 25 miles (40 km) south of Johannesburg.
Police are not sure if the newborn was killed or died of natural causes.
"Yes, the girl gave birth to the baby at the school, but we can't confirm what happened to it. A case of concealment of death is being investigated," police captain Shado Mashobane told the newspaper.
According to the Afrikaans-language newspaper Beeld, the dead newborn was found in a plastic bag filled with bloodied clothes. Police would not confirm the report.
The $46 million school was opened by Winfrey in January 2007 "to nurture, educate and turn gifted South African girls from impoverished backgrounds into the country's future leaders," according to a description on the school's website.
The school, which aims to house 450 girls in grades 7 through 12, offers free tuition, books and uniforms as well as room and board.
Months after the school opened its doors, though, a female staffer was accused of physically and sexually abusing boarders. She was later cleared of all charges.
Winfrey, herself a victim of sexual abuse as a child, traveled to South Africa after the accusations were made to offer her apologies and fired the school's headmistress Nomvuyo Mzamane.
Mzamane filed a defamation lawsuit against Winfrey in 2008, claiming the TV host "launched what amounted to a defamatory campaign" against Mzamane in the aftermath of the scandal.
The suit was later settled out of court and the terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
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