Education Minister Priya Manickchand yesterday said that her ministry has launched an investigation of the recordings that have surfaced featuring children from a secondary school engaging in sex acts.
In a post on her Facebook page yesterday, Manickchand also said that she would allow the professionals in the ministry to do their jobs without her interference.
She also condemned the Guyana Chronicle for publishing a still image of two of the children engaged in a sex act on Tuesday. She also had harsh words for those who viewed and shared a video recording on social networks.
The recording with the children surfaced sometime last week and quickly went viral on Facebook and other social networks but it was later removed by Facebook. However, it resurfaced yesterday.
Stabroek News understands that ministry officials and the school’s board have since met with the children and their parents and a decision was taken to suspend the children until further notice. The children involved will also receive counselling until a decision is taken about their future at the school. Many have called for the children to be expelled from the institution but others have strongly disagreed with this view, while arguing that the children have already been punished by the video going viral. It is understood that the sex acts did not occur on the school’s premises and one line of investigation would be to identify where the video was recorded.
In relation to Chronicle’s publication of the photograph, Minister Manickchand said she was stunned at what she described as “absolutely abhorrent, in poor taste and unprofessional journalistic work.”
“I hope to see an unqualified apology for what was very, very poor judgment on the part of the newspaper,” the minister added.
The Chronicle has since printed a front page apology to its readers for the publication.
The Rights of the Child Commission (RCC), a member of which sits on the board of the Chronicle-said, has said that it found the publication disturbing.
“Not only is this publication alarming, it demonstrates a blatant disregard for the standard which states that regardless of the circumstances, revelation of children’s identity should not take place since they are minors,” a release from RCC said.
The RCC said it looks forward to a commitment from the Chronicle and all media houses to honour the “boundaries of tasteful journalism, and moreso respect the sensitive nature of the situation, and not use the apparent lack of judgment of children as a means to further increase subscription.”
