BishopAccountability.org

High school teacher investigated for impregnating student

By Marion Ali
Reporter
June 15, 2017

http://www.reporter.bz/front-page/high-school-teacher-investigated-for-impregnating-student/

A teacher at Eden Seventh Day Adventist high school in Santa Elena, Cayo, is under investigation by San Ignacio police and the Ministry of Education, on allegations of sexual misconduct with as many as four of his students.

One of the girls may have had an abortion or two over the last year and a half.
Reporter’s investigations have showed that the teacher, whose name we have withheld until the Ministry and the police have concluded their investigations, has been involved with one of the girls, now an 18-year-old third form student, for the past two years. The others, as we understand, are girls with whom he has had sexual encounters.
This newspaper has learned of the existence of text messages, purportedly exchanged between the student and the teacher, that pertain not only to them having a sexual relationship, but about her having undergone an abortion as well.

It has been confirmed with the school’s management that the girl, accompanied by her stepmother, visited the school in the latter part of May, asking to be excused to travel to Mexico for medical treatment. While she has returned to Belize, the student has not returned to classes.
Similarly, the teacher, asked to be excused on Tuesday of this week, the day after final exams were concluded. He has not returned to school to begin planning lessons for the next school year, as the other teachers have done.

The Ministry of Education has launched a full investigation, after it received a formal complaint on Tuesday against the teacher.
While under the laws of Belize, the teacher and student would not be engaging in an illegal activity because the girl is already 16, the Education Rules clearly forbids that kind of intimacy between teacher and pupil.

Jahmor Lopez, the Ministry’s Principal Education Officer and Education Centre Manager indicated to the Reporter on Thursday that a teacher may lose his license for a number of violations which violate the guidelines laid out in the Education Rules. Prominently mentioned under Rule 92 (3) (b) it states that a teacher may lose his/ her license for any or all offense pertaining to “conduct which is physically or morally harmful to students”, including sexual abuse, unlawful carnal knowledge, rape, or sexual harassment.

Lopez added that a meeting was held on Tuesday about the incident involving the teacher and the student and that a counsellor with the Ministry was briefed about the allegations.

While she has denied the relationship with the teacher, the girl has told relatives that the teacher has “helped her with her grades”. She has also reportedly moved into the home of a close relative of the teacher after she refused to abide by rules laid out at her father’s house.
San Ignacio police are conducting an investigation into a separate incident at the school – one involving a video recording released in May, showing two of the students engaged in sexual intercourse on the school’s premises.

The school’s principal, Erodito Pineda, told this newspaper that the school’s management has taken action against the young man, an 18 year-old fourth former who has since graduated, but was not allowed to march up for his certificate. The girl, a 14 year-old first form student, was taken out of the school when her parents found out about the incident.
With regard to the teacher and student affair, Pineda said he received “rumours” about the pair only two weeks ago, at which point he called them in and questioned them. Both of them denied the allegations, he said. He added that he was never aware of any report involving abortions.

Pastor Leslie Gillett, who heads the Seventh Day Management, also told the Reporter on Thursday evening that the management had not, before our call, received any report or complaint of sexual misconduct against any teacher or student at the school in question. He promised to look into the information.

A reliable source has confided to this newspaper that there are parents who want the teacher away from their children attending classes at Eden Seventh Day Adventist high school, and that shortly, they will make attempts to have him removed.

The report just surfaced this week, after someone close to the girl was called in to work on the matter and discovered that the man was somebody they knew.




.


Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.