Francis Ebenezer Doku,
Any disciplinary action taken by the Ghana Education Service (GES) against the three teachers of Sokode Senior High Technical School, who allegedly assaulted a female student in the dormitory about a week ago, is without prejudice to police investigations into the matter.
The Volta Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Francis Ebenezer Doku, made this known to the Ghanaian Times in Ho yesterday.
He said that although the GES was also carrying out a probe into the action of the teachers, there was clearly a criminal element in the case.
“We received a report of assault on the girl and we also have photographs of the nasty injuries on her body, suggesting a grievous attack on the child,” according to DCOP Doku.
He said police investigators had already taken statement from the headmaster of the school “and we will take statements from the three suspects later in the day.”
Messrs. George Eworyi, assistant headmaster, academics; Samuel Kosipa, assistant headmaster, administration and Ebenezer Hlomenu, a form master were said to have stormed the girl’s dormitory last week Monday, to look for students who did not turn up in the dining hall for supper.
It is compulsory for all students to turn up in the dining hall during meals hours, even if they are not hungry.
According to some students, the girls locked themselves in the dormitory, and that prompted the teachers to knock at the door repeatedly for about 30 minutes before one of the girls finally opened the door.
The teachers, who were armed with canes, unleashed their anger on the girls numbering about eight, but it was one girl who was hiding under the bed at the time who suffered the worst of the torture as they caned her knees ruthlessly and inflicted several cuts and lacerations on her.
The injured teenager, whose name is being withheld, was rushed to a nearby health facility where she was treated and discharged.
However, she is yet to recover fully from the physical and emotionally torture which has affected her mobility.
Some horrified students managed to alert the Ghanaian Timesthrough a hidden cellular phone as the beatings were taking place.
The Regional Police Commander maintained that, “this is a serious matter because we know that corporal punishment is not an acceptable correctional measure in schools.”
Meanwhile, public outcry is mounting over the incident with some members of the public insisting that it was wrong for male teachers to invade a female dormitory because the girls could be naked at the time.
“They were naked or not fully dressed which is why it took them some time to open the door,” said one caller during a review of the Ghanaian Times story on the incident yesterday, by a Ho FM radio station.
FROM ALBERTO MARIO NORETTI, HO
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