TEACHER JAILED

A male teacher employed to a St Andrew-based high school is in police custody in connection with two investigations, one of which involves a 13-year-old female student, who was reported missing for several hours last week before she was found.

The teacher was apprehended last Friday but has not yet been charged with any crime, Senior Superintendent Kirk Ricketts, commanding officer for the St Andrew South Police, told The Gleaner on Sunday.

Following the arrest, Ricketts said that it was discovered that the educator was the subject of a separate probe being led by the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA).

The teacher is currently on “administrative suspension or leave” that could be related to the CISOCA probe, the senior cop said.

He said that investigators also believe that the initial report involving the missing 13-year-old “had something to do with this teacher”.

MISSING PERSON’S REPORT

According to the police and Gleaner sources, the child did not show up at school one day last week, causing a relative to file a missing person’s report with the police.

The following night, the teen was found along Padmore Drive in the Waltham Park Road area. She has since been reunited with her family, Ricketts confirmed.

“He (the teacher) is in custody as we finalise our investigation,” the senior cop said.

Cops were reportedly led to the teacher’s St Andrew home by another student, who is friends with the then-missing teen.

It is alleged that while in custody, the teacher sent a friend to his home to collect several gadgets, including a cellphone, a laptop, and a tablet.

The friend was intercepted by the police and the gadgets seized, a source close to the investigation revealed.

They are to be examined by the police’s Communication Forensic and Cybercrimes Division.

When contacted by The Gleaner, the principal of the school denied knowledge of the situation.

“I don’t know what you are referring to so I could not provide you with any information regarding whatever the questions you asked,” the principal said when asked whether the teacher was in custody.

The incident is the latest in a recent string of cases involving teachers.

At least four teachers are currently before the courts charged with various sex-related crimes involving their students.

They include Ronald Smith, 44, who is accused of repeatedly engaging in sex acts with female students at two high schools where he taught, some of which were captured in cellphone videos and pictures, investigators claim.

He was charged with over a dozen sex-related offences and could face more charges as the police search for other young girls seen in additional cellphone videos and pictures.

The others include Dawit Jeffrey, 29, a guidance counsellor at another St Andrew-based high school, and a 24-year-old business education teacher at a St Ann-based institution.

Jeffrey was charged in April last year with rape and multiple counts of indecent assault involving a 16-year-old female student.

The alleged incidents took place in his school office.

The business education teacher is facing charges of buggery, grievous sexual assault, and indecent assault involving a male student.

Calls to Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President La Sonja Harrison on Sunday went unanswered.

But a senior JTA official noted that every year, the union holds sensitisation sessions islandwide for its members, particularly those just entering the profession, to warn them of the many pitfalls they face.

“The police come in, along with representatives from the Child Protection and Family Services Agency, and explain to them the Child Care and Protection Act and the issue of statutory rape,” said the official, who did not want to be named. “You do this and you explain to them the dangers.”

The official, who was unaware of the latest incident, said the JTA has a firm stance against teachers getting involved with students but noted that the union has an obligation to assist members facing criminal charges.

A long-awaited Jamaica Teaching Council bill, which will repeal certain provisions of the Education Regulations of 1980 and regulate the practice and professional conduct of teachers, is currently under review by a joint select committee of Parliament.

It is seeking to establish a governing body for the profession and institute a regime for the licensing and registration of all government-paid teachers.

The legislation will give the council the legal power to immediately suspend and cancel the registration of a teacher who has been charged with a disqualifiable offence, which would include sexual assault, murder, pornography, robbery, and fraud.

The proposed legislation will require teachers found in breach to pay a minimum fine of $500,000, plus serve a stipulated six-month sentence in prison.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com