C/R: GES investigates housemistress for lashing 17-year-old student
The girl (name withheld) is said to have received 30 strokes of the cane on her buttocks from her housemistress for sleeping outside of the school campus
The Ghana Education Service (GES) has started investigations into alleged abuse of a 17-year-old final year student of the Komenda Senior High School in the Central Region.
The girl (name withheld) is said to have received 30 strokes of the cane on her buttocks from her housemistress for sleeping outside of the school campus.
The incident is said to have happened on the evening of Monday (21 June).
Narrating what happened to a friend who recorded the conversation, the student admitted that she went out of school and slept in her auntie’s house with a colleague without the permission of their housemistress, Ama Kisa Boadu.
She said that they returned to campus around 4:00 am, took a shower and attended class.
It was while in class that she was informed that the House Mistress was looking for her because as she came to discover later, some colleagues of hers had reported her absence to the teacher.
The student continued that she and her friend reported themselves to Boadu, who insisted on giving them “30 lashes each as punishment, despite our explanation.”
She said, “I was flogged until I was tired and could not even stand on my feet.”
She continued that although she reported the incident to “other heads of the school … she was asked, “to sleep over it and come back the next day.”
However, although teachers took pictures of her the next day, no one reported it to the headmaster. She was eventually asked not to report or go home.
“I had to take myself to the clinic because they would not make any effort to help me. I even went ahead to the Police station and at the time I was on my way, the head of the school still did not know what had happened to me.”
She suffered severe bruises on her buttocks and has difficulty sitting as a result of the assault.
Listen as she narrates her ordeal (she spoke in Twi)
“Nothing can be done”
Meanwhile, the municipal education director for Edina Eguafo Abirem, Cecilia Aboagye, has confirmed the incident in an interview with Beatrice Adu.
“The report has been sent to me about the issue,” she said.
Aboagye said she has sent three officers to the school to investigate the incident so “they are now working on the documents and are yet to bring their report.”
“Yes we know that we have banned corporal punishment so after we’ll call the teacher concerned, get our code of conduct and know how to deal with them but until we get that we can’t do anything for now,” she said.
Nana Abena Boakye –Boateng
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