Police detain 2 JHS girls

English teacher of the Tanokrom MA Junior High School (JHS) near Takoradi who allegedly did the unthinkable by causing the arrest and detention of two JHS students of the school has incurred the wrath of the parents.

According to the parents, the female teacher, one Monica Wiredu allegedly dragged their daughters to the Kwesimintsim Police Station also near Takoradi and asked the police to put them at the counter back for an offence they did not commit.

Narrating what led to the alleged action of the female English teacher in an interview with DAILY GUIDE Michael Yimbo, a father of one of the girls, noted that somewhere in June this year, her daughter who is about 13 years old and in JHS 1 approached him to help her with an assignment a science teacher of the school had given them.

According to the father, the science teacher asked the pupils to visit some filling stations to find out the reason why drivers have to put off their engines at the filling stations when purchasing fuel.

“So I directed my 13-year-old daughter to some filling stations in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis and encouraged her to make sure she does the assignment,” he added.

Mr. Yimbo indicated that one Saturday, the daughter together with her classmate, who is about 16-years-old, decided to go to the house of another female friend who is also about 15-years-old to call her to join them to visit the filling stations so that they could do the assignment together.

According to the father, when her daughter and her friend went to the house of the 15-year-old, she was not at home, and the mother told the two friends that her daughter had already gone out for the assignment.

Mr. Yimbo said the 15-year-old girl did not return to the house, and so when classes resumed on Monday, the mother of the girl went to the school to enquire the whereabouts of her daughter.

“It was at this point that the English teacher went to call my daughter and her 16-year-old friend from their classroom under the pretext that she was showing them something, but took them to the police station”.

Mr. Yimbo told DAILY GUIDE that the English teacher, whose husband is a senior police officer, alleged that since her daughter and the 16-year-old friend were the pals of the missing 15-year-old girl, the two knew where the missing girl would be, so the police should detain them.

According to the father, when news reached him that his daughter had been detained at the police station, he quickly rushed there and went through hell before he was able to bail his 13-year-old daughter.

When DAILY GUIDE contacted the head teacher of the school, Elizabeth Mensah, she confirmed the story, but declined to comment further because officials of the Metropolitan Directorate of Education had taken over the case.

When DAILY GUIDE visited the offices of the metro education yesterday, a source at the place denied that the English teacher caused the arrest and detention of the minors.

According to the source, the English teacher was only seeking the assistance of the two girls to help locate the missing girl since she was their friend, but the police, allegedly, detained them.

The source continued that it was true that the children were given the assignment by their science teacher, but the missing girl allegedly took advantage of that opportunity and went to sleep with her boyfriend.

It added that the two girls on detention were immediately released when their parents visited the police station, and stressed that the missing girl was at large.

It also stated that the directorate was yet to sit on the matter and promised that the appropriate sanctions would be taken against the English teacher since she had no authority on her own to send the two girls to the police station.

The source also indicated that the said boyfriend, 19, a drummer at a popular night club in Takoradi, was in the grips of the police. Attempts to get the police to comment on the case proved futile as calls to the station did not go through.