With the resumption of in-person classes, a survivor of sexual abuse is warning parents to remember that predators are lurking on the school compound.
On April 13, the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) alerted a Parliament Joint Select Committee (JSC) to cases of perverted teachers operating within local schools.
The JSC was told that in some cases, it appears paedophiles apply for teaching jobs to fulfil their sordid acts.
On Tuesday, the now 22-year-old male told Guardian Media that the irony of his incident was that he thought his secondary school was a safe space.
“Going to school was more appealing than coming home. I didn’t want to come home because of the environment I had here, so I wanted to spend more time doing fun things.”
And at the age of 15, when he entered Form Three, he decided to add martial arts to his slew of extracurricular activities. This required two hours of participation between 3 and 5 pm in a field behind the school.
“The school required you to do two co-curricular activities and that would go to your final grade,” he said.
He said this was a school-sanctioned programme where an attendance roll was taken to ensure the marks were properly earned.
The survivor said his martial arts instructor came in with a big reputation.
“He was very proficient and very well known.”
So much so that it was an honour to be invited to the private classes at the man’s home on weekends. But it was there he preyed on the boys.
“The training was strenuous; you would be very tired afterwards but then he would give us stretching exercises to do.”
With a deep breath, he continued, “He would slowly start running your back like if it was a proper massage, then he would slowly pull your pants down and massage around your anus, hold your genitalia to stimulate you, then he would apply some sort of lubrication and force himself on top of me.”
After his assault, the survivor said he was warned by the perpetrator that he would get in trouble if he told anyone.
The assault happened two more times before an older student at the school heard of the incidents and took the then 15-year-old to see the school’s principal.
“They made a call to my parents and then made a report to the area’s police station and in a matter of a few days they went to arrest him and eventually, it led to court proceedings but I did not want to go through with it because I was trying to move on.”
But the survivor believes the school handled the incident poorly with respect to vetting who they allow to interact with their students.
“While they do offer a lot of extracurricular activities and you can’t keep track of everyone, I find one sheet of paper to sign up to teach the programme is not enough to find out who exactly you are hiring, they could have met with him and evaluated him themselves, if they spoke to him, they would have known that he’s not a children-oriented person, he never showed any empathy.”
And with school resuming in full as of yesterday, the survivor warned parents that they should not assume anyone is safe around their children.
“If your child is seeking interest in something, first and foremost as a parent you need to ask questions, you need to know who is teaching your child, it doesn’t take much and while it may not stop the issue altogether, it could at least save some from the abuse.”
Guardian Media has heard similar horror stories.
Many parents acknowledged that their children were preyed upon but did not wish to subject them to an interview due to the trauma.
However, one person reached out via email, where he alleged that a teacher at a school in south Trinidad had a reputation for inappropriate relationships with female students.
That teacher was allegedly eventually promoted to a senior position in the teaching service which not only allows him to monitor the quality standards at schools but put him in charge of confidential reports on teachers.
The informant said they informed the Ministry of Education but nothing was done and he shudders to think what the man is doing now that he is in a position of power.
Guardian Media was given the alleged perpetrator’s name and that information has been passed on again to the Education Ministry.
Meanwhile, the Concerned Parents Movement of Trinidad and Tobago (CPMTT) said the issue of inaction against alleged predators is unfortunately not a new one.
“This has been going on for years, we had teachers eventually marrying their students and nobody bats an eye, and that is still happening, you take it to the SS3 (School Supervisor 3) nothing is being done with it, we had one year where a teacher wrote an in-depth report, took it to the Fyzabad Police Station and nothing happened because they want the child to step forward, parents are not putting their children through that,” said chairman Clarance Mendoza.
Mendoza added that other parents do not come forward due to how long the process takes for justice.
“Why? Why we have to wait eight to ten years for matters to come before the courts, we need these things to be speedier, it seems like the children have to live their whole life without justice.”
Guardian Media sent several questions to Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly regarding the system for investigating these matters. The minister promised to respond as soon as is practicable but no response came as of press time on Tuesday.