The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion has con­firmed that an in­ves­ti­ga­tion cur­rent­ly is un­der­way in­to al­le­ga­tions of mis­con­duct by a staff mem­ber at the Siparia West Sec­ondary School.

And the min­istry says it is fol­low­ing all nec­es­sary pro­to­cols and pro­ce­dures, and giv­en the sen­si­tive na­ture of the case, is treat­ing it with ex­treme ur­gency.

Guardian Me­dia re­port­ed on Tues­day:

“…trou­bling al­le­ga­tions are com­ing from Siparia West Sec­ondary af­ter a teacher has been ac­cused of sex­u­al­ly ha­rass­ing fe­male stu­dents.  A re­li­able source told Guardian Me­dia that four com­plaints have been lodged at the school, but no ac­tion has been tak­en against the teacher… Guardian Me­dia was al­so in­formed that fe­male staff mem­bers are al­so un­com­fort­able around the teacher and have ex­pressed con­cerns to the prin­ci­pal that the mat­ter is not be­ing prop­er­ly ad­dressed.”

See ar­ti­cle, “Teacher ac­cused of sex­u­al ha­rass­ment at school”, here… https://guardian.co.tt/news/teacher-ac­cused-of-sex­u­al-ha­rass­ment-at-school-6.2.1556293.ec­cd9c5592

The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion says a probe in­to the al­le­ga­tions was launched on Sep­tem­ber 20, when a re­port of in­ap­pro­pri­ate be­hav­iour was made.  Even­tu­al­ly, the Com­mu­ni­ty Po­lice and the Child Pro­tec­tion Unit, in ad­di­tion to the Min­istry’s SSSD Unit all be­came in­volved in the mat­ter.

The fol­low­ing is the full text of the state­ment by the Min­istry…

The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion ad­vis­es, as re­lates to the al­le­ga­tions of mis­con­duct by a staff mem­ber at the Siparia West Sec­ondary School, that the mat­ter is be­ing ad­dressed, ac­cord­ing to es­tab­lished pro­to­cols, by the School Su­per­vi­sion and Man­age­ment Di­vi­sion (SS­MD), and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS). The pro­ce­dures and pro­to­cols for in­ves­ti­gat­ing mat­ters of this na­ture are very spe­cif­ic, in the in­ter­est of pro­tect­ing stu­dents.

The in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to al­le­ga­tions of ha­rass­ment against a stu­dent by a staff mem­ber at the school was ini­ti­at­ed on Tues­day Sep­tem­ber 20th, 2022 when a re­port was made on the mat­ter of al­leged in­ap­pro­pri­ate be­hav­iour.  A re­port was then made to the Com­mu­ni­ty Po­lice, and the stu­dent, along with SSSD per­son­nel, met with the Prin­ci­pal. The stu­dent’s par­ents were asked to come in­to the school, and on Wednes­day, 28th Sep­tem­ber, 2022, the staff mem­ber in ques­tion met with the Prin­ci­pal, Vice- Prin­ci­pal, and sub­se­quent­ly, on Fri­day 7th Oc­to­ber, 2022, with of­fi­cers from the Child Pro­tec­tion Unit (CPU), along with the stu­dent, par­ent and SSSD per­son­nel.   

In mat­ters of a sen­si­tive na­ture such as this one, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion must fol­low all the pro­to­cols and pro­ce­dures. The rel­e­vant re­ports from the Prin­ci­pal and School Su­per­vi­sor have been re­ceived and are be­ing treat­ed with ur­gency.

With re­spect to the re­port of gangs op­er­at­ing at Siparia West Sec­ondary, the Prin­ci­pal, Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion TTUTA rep­re­sen­ta­tive and School Su­per­vi­sor have all, in writ­ing, de­nied knowl­edge of gang ac­tiv­i­ty at the school.