Teacher Placed on Administrative Leave After Student Alleges He Sent Her Indecent Messages
There is a disturbing allegation that has surfaced about a teacher at one of Belize City’s high schools. A parent has come forward to say that a male teacher at Canaan Seventh day Adventist high school sent his teenage daughter, who was a student at the high school up until today, a series of indecent text messages via Instagram last Monday. The girl apparently rejected the teacher’s advances and showed her parents the messages when she got home. The next day, the parents went with their child to school and reported the matter to the school’s administration, but a week later when no action had been taken against the teacher; the irate father grew impatient and returned to the school. News Five’s Marion Ali spoke with the father today but, to protect his daughter’s identity, we cannot reveal his. Here’s that report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
It’s every parent’s nightmare – to learn that their underage child has been the subject of unwarranted sexual advances, whether physical or otherwise by someone who should be their caretaker at school – a teacher. But that is exactly what occurred last week Monday when a student of Canaan Seventh day Adventist High School in Coney Drive received indecent text messages via Instagram allegedly from one of her male teachers. After she rejected him, she told her parents about it and they sought action the next day.
Father of aggrieved student
Father of aggrieved student
“We then went to the school, presented the evidence that we had – the screenshots – and to the vice principal, my child opened her phone to the app to show them the app. Apart from that, we also, just as a further measure, so there’s no question, clicked on the profile of the person sending the message and it was that of the teacher. We were then told that something would have been done.”
But the father said that after a week, nothing was done and his daughter was going to school and facing the same teacher in class every day, much to her discomfort. The father told us that he grew impatient and returned to the school with an ultimatum.
Father of aggrieved student
“I said you guys have had enough time. Put the guy on administrative leave or terminate him by midday, the following day, which is the thirty-first, yesterday. They did not do that.”
What made matters worse was a string of events that allegedly happened at school on Tuesday.
Father of aggrieved student
“My daughter was at school yesterday. She finished the day there. When she came home she broke down and started crying and there was an incident that she told her mom and me about, which was she was approached by a teacher – a female teacher – who said something to the effect that: “I didn’t know you stand soh.” And that right there made me hit a hundred. I will take legal action against the school as allowed to the full limits of the law.”
The dad said he discovered that another teacher was terminated just recently for an even more egregious incident.
Father of aggrieved student
“The principal and vice principal openly admitted to us, me and the two witnesses and we have part of it on recording, where there was a previous incident with another teacher recently that they let go. And I asked specifically, “Did you inform the Ministry of Education?” And there was dead silence.”
The angry father informed us that he took his daughter out of the school today and is now in the process of registering her at another high school. She has been distraught since the day the messages were sent to her, he said.
Father of aggrieved student
“I don’t really have the words to describe what she’s going through. It’s a traumatic event. It’s a traumatic event for the entire family. She has older and younger siblings who are feeling the effects of this.”
The parent encouraged students who have endured the same offensive experience, whether at the same or another school, to use this incident as their impetus to come forward and report such activity.
Father of aggrieved student
“I have gone to the police. And I’m very interested in seeing what the Ministry of Education will do, not only to provide the help that my daughter and my family needs right now, mentally and emotionally, but also from an educational standpoint. That needs to be fixed.”
The father believes that there needs to be an authority where minors who become victims of these kinds of experiences can seek help. He said his coming forward is to sound a call for this to be put in place.
Father of aggrieved student
“When we initially lodged our complaint, we weren’t directed toward anywhere to go, what to do, if there’s any next steps – the process that would happen that the school would take. The school never informed us of anything. There doesn’t appear to be any documentation that I found anywhere that specifically says what should be done in situations like this. I don’t want this ever to happen again. I want there to be some kind of reform, some sort of policy that’s made known in the public domain that every parent has access to.”
The father advised families to talk to their children and where cases like his daughter’s surface, to make it public so that the perpetrators are brought to justice. Marion Ali for News Five.
We reached out to the school, and we were told that the principal was not taking any calls today. We also reached out to the Ministry of Education and the Seventh Day Adventist Mission, both of which informed us that they are conducting investigations into the allegations and that they will issue a statement. That statement came from the Ministry this evening, in which it stated in part, “We are disturbed and deeply concerned by these allegations. In accordance with Sections 58, 59 and 60 of the Education (Amendment) Rules, Revised Edition 2012, the Managing Authority has commenced an investigation into these allegations, and the teacher involved has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of this investigation”
