University of Guyana (UG) lecturer Evan Radhay Persaud has admitted using profanity and sexual innuendo in the classroom saying that his general manner of speaking is accepted in the “real world”, but he has denied ever discussing sex as a topic with his students.
“This is how people will talk to them out there… this is the nature of this business,” Persaud said yesterday in an exclusive interview with Stabroek News at the UG Turkeyen campus. He explained his presence at the institution saying he received a letter from the university asking him to report yesterday.
Persaud, who was recently reinstated by the UG Council, is expected to meet the administration next Wednesday where his duties would be outlined. According to him, everything would be made clear at that meeting. Prior to his suspension from the university, he had served as a lecturer in the Faculty of Technology.
Persaud was seated among a group of students chatting when Stabroek News approached him, and he got up and readily agreed to be interviewed. He said that his life has played out in the news “these past few months”, and he was kept in the dark during the investigation which was conducted.
From the beginning of the initial UG-led investigation against him, Persaud said, he had requested four things: Statute 25 of the university rules; the code of conduct; the allegations made by the students and the initial report of the investigative committee.
With respect to his requests, he said the university gave him Statute 25, but he only saw the code of conduct many months after. Additionally, he said the allegations made by the students were never shown to him nor did he see the report of the investigative committee. Further, he said, he is yet to see the report of the special committee which cleared him earlier this year.
Persaud said also that prior to the recent letter UG had last communicated with him on February 10 this year when he was served with a notice for a hearing. “Between then and now I have been reading about myself in the paper all these months,” he said, laughing.
He described the allegations against him as strange, saying that he was known for talking a certain way in the classroom, and “no one has ever had a problem”. He categorically denied ever discussing sex with his students, and stressed that he was never accused of this. “There were no charges about any sex talk, nothing like that was read to me,” he said.
Persaud said three charges were read to him initially; using profanity in the classroom, intimidating and victimizing a student; and holding an off-campus examination at a city hotel. He pointed out that the charge said “victimizing a student and not two, three, four students”.
Speaking on the use of profanity in his lessons, Persaud said that he “would cuss but not the students”. He explained: “I would say stuff like bring the f**king map and or pass the f**king brush or something like that… I am not cussing the students it is just how I speak generally and this is what they will encounter out there.”
Asked whether the use of profanity is appropriate conduct for university lecturers, he said, “Well it is industrial language… it was like fun too.” He maintained that he never “cussed my students”, adding that his language is related to the subject.
He said that his technology courses, particularly geology, are laced with sexual
innuendo and he would have fun teaching certain lessons, but “I never raised sex as a topic”. He gave an example saying that he had fun teaching things like, the “magma entered the earth’s crust”.
Persaud insisted that he did not single out any student for punishment, adding that he has no idea where “Mahipaul get the idea that I want to shoot him”. His reference was in relation to UG student, Ganesh Mahipaul, who has accused Persaud of victimizing him.
Persaud dismissed as “nonsense” the allegation that he held an off-campus examination at a city hotel. He said that the records at the university would reflect his examinations were all held on campus. He said his examinations were also held in the presence of others.
“This has been a learning experience. This is how I would put it down. I teach an industrial subject and when students go out there they have to become accustom to industrial language. People are out there cussing each other left and right,” he added.
Persaud, who has been nicknamed ‘Sex Man’ by students, had a range of complaints including claims of victimization and inappropriate behaviour lodged against him by students. He was cleared of the allegations after a special committee set up to investigate the claims found a lack of evidence.
Recently, the UG Council ruled that Persaud be reinstated as a lecturer with a stern warning. This was in keeping with a recommendation from the special committee.
Prior to its ruling the UG Council had sought advice from law firm, Cameron and Shepherd, and the firm had found that the report of the special committee was flawed, and that it would not be legally sustainable since Persaud was not given a fair hearing.
In a letter to Registrar Vincent Alexander, dated October 15, 2010, Cameron and Shepherd said the special committee failed to fulfil its mandate in accordance with university laws. “…We believe that the conclusion of the hearing of the special committee was flawed and that it was not reflective of a fair and just process”.
Meanwhile, Mahipaul said that he will accept the decision of the UG Council and “move on”. He said the administration failed by not providing Persaud with the information he requested. “I hope that Evan Persaud changes his ways and treats students better,” he added.
