by Carol-ann Tudor THE PRINCIPAL of the school where an alleged rape took place has queried how the Ministry of Education could give a statement on the matter since he never reported the incident.In a telephone interview yesterday with the SATURDAY SUN, the principal said he had never reported the matter and had “no comment to make”.The incident, which was the Back Page lead story in last week’s SATURDAY SUN, highlighted the plight of a mother, whose 11-year-old daughter had “allegedly been raped” by a 15-year-old fellow student while changing her clothes on the school’s compound. Police confirmed that the incident had been reported, and that the 15-year-old student had been charged and was on bail. But the parent of the young girl said she had been sleepless because the boy was still attending school with her daughter. She was adamant that her daughter would not be returning to that school in September under those circumstances.Acting Chief Education Officer Laurie King yesterday confirmed that he was aware of the situation of “the alleged rape” and had asked his officers to investigate.King said that in circumstances such as the one that allegedly occurred, he could see no challenges in having the alleged victim transferred in that regard.“If she is requesting a transfer, she has to submit a request to the ministry, and in the circumstances it would be something to be looked at favourably, and to find alternative accommodation for her at one of the other secondary schools would be no problem, as long as she is Barbadian. I don’t see that there are any challenges that she would have in that regard,” he stated.King said there were certain protocols that had to be followed, but generally speaking the ministry was “favourably disposed to accommodating persons in those circumstances”.The mother said yesterday that she had already applied to the ministry for a transfer and was advised to get in contact with the school to which she wanted her child transferred.“I did that, and then the principal [at the new school] told me I would have to obtain the child’s report from the school. But they are being difficult at the school. I already have her second-term report, but I need to have her first-term report, and this is nearly a month now I have been trying to obtain it from her school. “I even asked the police officer dealing with the matter to try to obtain the report for me, but the school told her that she was not the child’s parent and could not obtain the report, so all I am getting is the runaround. I really need the ministry to help me,” she lamented.
