Student reportedly sexually harassed in St. Joseph High School washroom

October 21, 2024

A group of boys attending the St Joseph High School in Georgetown are facing the heat for reportedly sexually assaulting a male First-Former at the school.  A woman who identified herself as the mother of the affected child took to social media on Sunday, October 20, 2024, where she provided details surrounding the incident as reported by her son, and based on her interactions with the educators at the school and Education Officials. The Incident at the school happened on Thursday, October 17, 2024.

In a Facebook Live Broadcast on Sunday, October 20, 2024, the mother detailed the ordeal as reported to her by her son. According to her, a teacher sent him to the washroom to tidy himself, and when he got there, one of the males forced him into a washroom and ordered him to unzip his pants, which he refused.

The woman said her son told her that when he refused to unzip his pants, the elder boy reached to unzip it and asked him “You want to see how gay I can get?’. The mother recalled being told by her son that he fought off the aggressor in an attempt to exit the washroom but soon realized that it was jammed from the outside. Other boys were bracing the door from behind. Nevertheless, he managed to exit and raced to a teacher who he told of the sexual assault.

The child’s mother said the first teacher he encountered after the ordeal, laughed when he told her what happened.

The mother said the school telephoned her to inform her that there was a “little touching incident” at the school, involving her son. The caller reportedly identified herself as Karen Burch-Smith who invited her to a meeting the following day, October 18, 2024.

The boys who reportedly committed the act were at the meeting along with their parents. According to the affected child’s mother, there was no remorse on their face or that of their parents. She even recalled the boys laughing at the meeting.

The mother further detailed that when the matter was handed over to the Education Department, an officer who she identified determined that based on statements that her son and the other boys wrote, she found the older boys to be guilty of the act they were accused of and was preparing her report with recommendations for suspension.

The mother reported that another senior officer walked into the meeting room and without reviewing the report that was being prepared to be sent to him, suggested that all parties involved them, suggest that all the boys involved including the alleged victim be sent home.

That approach angered Akeela who said the officer acted improperly as she suggested that his actions might be linked to the claims that the parents of the boys involved in the sexual harassment are generous contributors and donors to the St. Joseph High School.

“They made him feel like he is the victim,” the woman said of some education officials and the school system. She explained that there was an attempt by the education officer to suggest that her son’s statement was not strong enough to take action against the boys as he did not name them in his written statement. The mother is contending that her son could not name the boys as he was first former and they were in classes higher than him which makes him unfamiliar with their names. Notwithstanding, however, she said her son identified the boys by their faces and pointed them out to the school’s administration.

“I am affected emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually’ stated ‘Akeela’, the mother of the first former noted in her Live Broadcast.

According to the mother believes the school is more interested in not having its name associated with such great injustice against her son and more concerned with protecting children whose parents contribute to the school rather than offering justice to her son and protecting other children from similar incidents which she also described as bullying.

The woman said when she went to the police station, the police refused to entertain her report and directed her to the Ministry of Education. She has planned to take legal action.

Efforts to security an official comment from the Ministry of Education on Monday morning were futile.