EDITORIAL: Is This Abuse Or Correction?

On Sunday, June 1st, 2008, TV3 carried a news item about an incident in which two men believed to be Land guards were whipping a male student of the Great Lamptey Mills Institute in Accra. According to the report, the student was alleged to have peeped at female students in the girls' dormitory. In another news report on the same television station on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2008, the student denied the accusation against him. Unfortunately the school authorities would not comment on the issue when the television station contacted them.

The Proprietor of the school, Mr. Enoch Lamptey Mills was reported to have rained insults on the TV crew and said he did not care how far they will go with the story. This is an inappropriate act by the Proprietor of a school that has gained so much popularity, especially through their educative campaigns that is carried on our television screens.

One would have thought that for a school of this calibre, the authorities would have been more cooperative with the media considering the damaging effect of the story. For a student of the school to be punished in such a barbaric manner in the full glare of the general public on television, all the Proprietor needed to do was to provide an explanation that the incident might have been a deviation from the normal practice in the school, just to allay the fears of the general public, parents and guardians who have enrolled their wards in the school.

The Chronicle regards this issue as a matter of public interest rather than the face saving tactics employed by the Proprietor to protect the image of the school. We therefore find it prudent for the school authorities to as a matter of importance come out to properly address the issue to reassure parents of maximum protection and care for their wards. The fact that some of the students who witnessed the punishment hooted at the perpetrators (the Land guards) showed that the attitude of the latter was very bad. If it was true that the student indeed committed the offence for which he was cruelly punished, Land guards were not the appropriate people to carry out the punishment.

It is the view of The Chronicle that the issue must be well-investigated and proper sanctions applied to offending parties in the spirit of justice. We also call on the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Parent Teachers Association of the school to intervene in the matter to put things right.

It is also important that the outcome of the investigations be made known to the public so that parents and guardians would be assured that the relevant Institutions set up to regulate the activities of both public and private Institutions are up and doing to serve as a deterrent. Educational Institutions have a huge responsibilities towards the pupils and students that they train, and they must perform this function to the benefit of the country.