| The Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) has criticized the Berbice police for the manner in which teacher of Fort Wellington Secondary School, Ronald Forde,Authentic NFL Jerseys Wholesale China, was arrested. The union is now calling on the government to send counselors to the school,Daniel Norris Tigers Jersey, immediately.According to the President of the GTU, Colin Bynoe, the union is annoyed at the police hierarchy in ‘B’ Division for swooping down on the school premises last Monday and arresting the teacher in the presence of the children,Jerseys NFL Wholesale, who were on recess during the time.Bynoe stated that the students were very traumatized by the scenes of heavily armed ‘black clothes’ policemen,Jeff Keppinger White Sox Jersey, headed by Divisional Commander,China Jerseys Cheap, Steven Merai.“The idea that a Commander of the division had to turn up himself to arrest a teacher is saying much. The idea that policemen can go into a school and remove people’s children without consent of parents/guardians is another thing,” Bynoe told Kaieteur News.He is of the view that no police officer can enter a school and arrest a teacher without even first informing the Regional Education Officer of the region.He said that these procedures had not been followed on Monday and that the police could have conducted the entire thing in a better manner.“Going into a school with so many armed policemen is not a good thing to do, for it leaves trail of trauma on the children of the school. The mere idea that the police will take up guarded positions with long guns and dressed with black clothes is traumatic for students and minors,NFL Jerseys Outlet,” he stated.He then said that for students to have been in school during recess and to see one of their teachers escorted out of the school in handcuffs is another form of trauma for them.Bynoe posited that if they had to arrest the teacher in haste, it behooves the commander that he or she as commander to inform the Regional Education Officer and to inform them of what they [the police] would have done.Another area that bothers the GTU was that female students of the Fort Wellington School were taken in for questioning.“To remove three female students without the permission of parents and take them for questioning is another violation,” he said.He noted that the union is not condoning the teacher’s wrong actions but at the same time it is deeply concerned about the manner in which the police went about finding the perpetrator.He said that he was not aware whether the police used the same modus operandi and arrested the teacher involved in molesting a male at a West Demerara School. He said that nowhere in the world could what happened on Monday at Fort Wellington, happen anywhere else.He is calling on the authorities not to have a repeat of this. He is also calling on the Ministry of Education (MOE) to immediately get counselors in the schools to deal with traumatized students in order to bring normalcy to that school.Also calling on the Ministry of Education to say quickly if there is a new paradigm shift in the way the police or the military go and arrest people without the permission of the head teacher, Regional Education Officer and with permission from parents.“If there is a new paradigm shift, let it be known so that persons can be able to know how to handle future matters,”, he said.Ronald Forde, 25, a trained Grade 1 Class 1 teacher was charged on Thursday with having carnal knowledge with one of his students in the school between September and October last year.Heavily-armed police swooped down on the school during a mid- morning snack break and arrested the teacher. He was seen leaving his workplace in handcuffs. The females implicated in the sexual acts were also brought to the Central Police Station in New Amsterdam where they were questioned.Apart from this, he is also calling on the Ministry of Human Services to educate teachers about the Sexual Offences Bill.The union leader said that the Ministry of HumanServices is operating in a reactive mode. He is calling on both the Ministries of Human Services and Education to issue programmes to all teachers so that they can be more aware and knowledgeable about the contents and ramifications of the Sexual Offenses Bill.“Just like how they [the government] found time to brief policemen on their roles on the Sexual Offences Bill, they are supposed to find finances to do a countrywide campaign with teachers and nurses in country because those are two groups of people which are the first set of people that make contact with minors,” Bynoe stated. (Leon Suseran) |
