Two weeks after female students of the Santa Rosa Secondary School dormitory were subjected to a strip search over missing money, allegedly at the hands of the School’s Welfare Officer and the Matron of the dorms, parents are expected to meet with officials of the Ministry of Education on Saturday to discuss the incident.
Several parents of students who were forced to strip expressed their disgust to Stabroek News over the manner in which their children were treated by persons who were expected to protect them.
A father of a 14-year-old student of the school explained that, like numerous other parents, he did not find out about the incident until days after it had occurred. He said that when he finally found out, he travelled to the Moruca sub-region where the school is located, to question his daughter who in turn told him that the School’s Welfare Officer had forced them to strip, and along with another woman, had conducted a search of the girls.
“A few days after I found out, I had to travel to Moruca to see a relative of mine at the hospital. So when I got there, I picked up my daughter and I asked her if the story was true and she said most of the story was true. She said the part about the police being in the room when they stripped the girls was not true but that the two officers stood outside in the hallway while it happened,” the man related.
Additionally, the man said that his daughter told him that a few of her roommates were experiencing their menstrual cycle at the time of the incident and began to cry when they were told to strip. But even as they began to cry, they were threatened to follow her instructions.
The parent noted that after his daughter related the details of the incident to him, he made several attempts to meet with the School’s Head Teacher Glen La Cruz, however, his attempts were futile as he was informed that the Head teacher was engaged in an emergency meeting with the District Education Officer Ignatius Adams.
The man added that the entire incident has left him with a feeling of distrust for the Welfare Officer and the dorm’s mother, and has forced him to contemplate removing his daughter from the dormitory.
“If I take my daughter out of the dorms, I don’t have anywhere else to put her; if I bring her back home, it’s like I’m taking away her chance to obtain a decent secondary education because we only have a primary top here where I live,” the father contended.
Other parents like Gwenny Charles who resides in a village some 36 miles away from the Santa Rosa Secondary School, feels as though the lack of attention given to the incident by Ministry officials provides no assurance of her child’s wellbeing while at the dormitory.
“They cannot treat my child like this…. It is hard on me as a mother knowing that I couldn’t go and see my child right away…she came home over the weekend and she told me what happened and I feel very bad about it,” Charles said. But with the lack of action taken, Charles feels the best she can do as a parent right now, is advise her 13 year old daughter to put the incident behind her and focus on her school work.
Allan Henry, another parent, shared similar sentiments as he spoke of his 13 year old daughter not only being stripped search, but also having her cellphone taken away so she could not contact her parents.
“My daughter came home last weekend and she told us that the Welfare Officer commanded them to take off their clothes, their underwear everything. She said when the girls who were having their ‘monthly’ start crying, she threaten to have the police lock them up,” Henry said.
“I feel terrible about this thing man, they are treating the children like they at a Juvenile centre and this is wrong. I want the Welfare Officer to be removed but right now is like everybody playing the blame game up there; the police saying that they did not tell the welfare woman to instruct the girls to strip and the welfare woman saying that the police instructed her to strip the girls. Look they even take away these girls phone so that they couldn’t call their parents. We want something to come out of this thing man,” he added.
Stabroek News has since been informed that a general meeting is planned for this Saturday, in the auditorium of the Santa Rosa Secondary School, where officials from the Education Ministry, together with the village Toshao, police from the district police stations and parents of students, will discuss the allegations and circumstances under which the teenagers were strip searched.
Reports of the incident were first brought to Stabroek News’ attention after one of the students related details to a resident in the area. Based on information reaching this newspaper, the incident occurred on the evening of September 15, after the “Dorms mother” made a report to the School’s Welfare Officer regarding a sum of cash that had gone missing from her room.
This, prompted the Welfare Officer to make a report to the police who allegedly gave the directive to have the students stripped search. Following the publication of an article in Stabroek News on the incident, Acting Commissioner of Police David Ramnarine in a statement denied any involvement of the police ranks. In the statement, it was acknowledged that a report of stolen money belonging to the Matron of the dorms was made at the said police station by the School’s Welfare Officer. This, led the Subordinate Officer-in-Charge and a Constable accompanied by the Welfare Officer to visit the dormitory, where the children’s bags were searched by the Welfare Officer.
The statement said that while no money was recovered in the search, the Welfare Officer insisted that a search be conducted on each child.
However, this was met with an objection from the Subordinate Officer, who indicated that it would be improper in the circumstances for the police to sanction this, the statement added.
At this point of time, both ranks reportedly left the school and returned to the station, where they later learnt that the children were searched by the School Welfare Officer, the police added.
