Teacher accused of having sex with female student, 14

May 18, 2019 News

West Demerara District residents are outraged over the allegations of a school teacher having sex at his home with a 14-year-old female student.
Yesterday, sources from within the Ministry of Education informed that there have been several cases of sexual misconduct in Region Three schools, many of them being instances were male teachers have seduced underage females.
In the particular case, officials informed that the teacher had been ‘preening and pruning’ the young girl from since her entrance into secondary school and had somehow managed to get her to his home, where sex acts have allegedly been committed. This teacher is reportedly before the Teaching Service Commission as the matter undergoes investigation.
Authorities apparently got wind of the incident when the young girl confessed to a colleague who made the matter public. Reports suggest that the teacher would often lure the young girl to his home where the sexual acts were committed.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Education sources have informed that for 2019, eleven cases of sexual harassment of students have been reported in West Demerara Schools and are presently being investigated.
Meanwhile, Region Three’s Education Department has informed that there are also many cases of drug abuse in schools in West Demerara, where students may have become the target of peddlers who lured them into the use of substances.
This publication was told there have been several instances where students were caught with the popular ‘ecstasy pill’ in schools. Doctors and other related specialists have been invited to schools to have sessions to educate students on the danger of pills and substances.
Presently, the aforementioned department has implemented a six-week programme where Peer Educators are targeting thirty students who have used drugs and thirty who have been ‘clean’. The students who have not consumed drugs are trained to become school-level peer educators to monitor, advise and even counsel drug users to induce and enhance positive lifestyle changes.
At the end of this training, the drug users and their trainers, upon the satisfaction of senior personnel, are give certificates of recognition.
In the wake of these occurrences, Region Three Regional Education Officer, Anesta Douglas, when contacted yesterday, said that several workshops and seminars are being conducted to educate parents, teachers, and more importantly students, on the issues surrounding child abuse, drug abuse in schools, sexual misconduct/harassment. She said that students, and even parents, are encouraged to come forward, which is the objective of the ministry’s ‘Tell Scheme’ initiative.
Douglas noted also that there have been incidents of ‘Cyber Bullying’ in schools, citing that just recently, young girls have been receiving a video (with a penis exposed) with instructions that they meet a certain teacher in a certain classroom. She said this teacher has been called in and questioned and has denied circulating the video. That matter is still under investigation.
In Guyana, sexual harassment is covered under the Prevention of Discrimination Act of 1997. The section is very cursory and simply states, “‘Sexual harassment’ is defined … as unwanted conduct of a sexual nature in the workplace or in connection with the performance of work which is threatened or imposed as a condition of employment on the employee or which creates a hostile working environment for the employee.”
The law thus confines the offence to the workplace when in fact it can, and does, occur in any location. Schools, for instance, form a hotbed for sexual harassment of female students by teachers.
Cultural Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Social Cohesion, Ruel Johnson, in 2017 had filed a letter of complaint against a male teacher of The Bishops’ High School who allegedly preyed on and had sexual relationships with female students of the said institution. That teacher has since been hauled before the courts.

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