WATCH Gabon School Staff Destroy Students' Phones With Hammer

An eye-popping video, which has racked up over 17,000 views on Facebook, has left dozens of Gabon’s high school students thunderstruck.

In a video, filmed on October 24 outside the Lyceé Joseph Ambourouet Avaro in Port-Gentil, Gabon, a man can be seen smashing a pile of cellphones on the ground using a hammer. The man was later identified as the school’s guard.

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France 24 has spoken to two students who confirmed that it was common practice to have their phones seized, but this was the first time that the devices were actually destroyed.

The France 24 Observers team reached the school’s deputy head teacher Daniel Esseng, who sent the outlet a list of strict no-mobile rules. One of the rules stipulates that all devices “confiscated within the high school’s grounds will be immediately destroyed.” There are, however, some exceptions — for example, if a student has health problems.

Mr. Esseng then explained that the majority of phones in the video had been seized years ago, and only a few in that pile had been recently confiscated. The intended message was, he said, to show students that the rules should be followed.

Essang stressed that, as far as he knew, parents hadn’t complained to staff members about the somewhat radical approach. The students, however, were frustrated that they had not been verbally informed about the school rules, he said.