‘Sex in school not new’

Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) president Devanand Sinanan said school children engaging in sex acts was not a new phenomenon. But students have taken it a bit further and are using social media to film themselves. Sinanan added that parents have a responsibility to offer guidance and education to their children with respect to responsible sexual behaviour. After Point Fortin resident Helen Bartlett beat her 12-year-old daughter for indecent exposure and posted a counter video on social media last month, a debate ensued about whether she was exposed to discipline or child abuse. This week, on the heels of Bartlett’s incident, video footage, which has also gone viral, revealed two schoolboys and a girl engaged in what appeared to be a sexual act in a classroom. The footage showed a boy seated on a chair while a girl straddled him and gyrated on him. After the act, the other boy was also the recipient of a straddling. In a telephone interview Wednesday, Sinanan said: “I have only been hearing about it, I have not seen it. I have been hearing rumours, so I would not want to venture a comment at the moment. School uniforms look similar. “Children have been engaging in these acts since I was in school. I know of another school where about 15 students were suspended for such acts. They kept it under wraps because of the parents not wanting it to get into the media,” he added. “What is new is they are filming it and it is getting to the attention of the students. It is now being brought to national attention. It is a bit hypocritical because the society is promiscuous. When we look at how people behave at Carnival fetes, it is like they are in heat.” Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh said the matter was raised at a Cabinet meeting. He said his Ministry would be putting mechanisms in place to monitor children and Internet usage. “I immediately instructed the IT (information technology) department to set up a system within the social media so we can have these incidents sent to the Ministry without any delay. I have instructed school supervisors and principals to have zero tolerance for any of these indecent and indisciplined behaviour by students,” said Gopeesingh. “They would face immediate suspension, following which they would be sent for counselling with their parents. And if (after this) we are not satisfied with the behaviour of the student in school, they would have to suffer the consequences of being out of school for a while, until they can adopt the kind of behaviour that is becoming of a student.” And in an i95FM report, Minister of Gender, Youth and Child Development Clifton De Coteau said he had doubts about the authenticity of the “sex tape”. “If you say up, they go down, you say right, they go left. It is a matter of curiosity. I did not see the video so I cannot speak with any authority on it as to whether they were simulating sex, going through the motion and pretending. I honestly feel they were not doing the act, they were simulating sex or playing the fool.” De Coteau said the nation needed to go back to proper parenting and his Ministry would be conducting an outreach programme to assist them. “We will be educating parents as to their responsibility to our young people, because clearly, if there is some degree of cautioning at home, I don’t think the children would go in that direction.” The Minister said children were adventurous and curious and, to compound it, they had to deal with peer pressure.