Eight teachers of Ejisuman Senior High School (SHS) and a non-teaching staff are to face disciplinary action by the Ghana Education Service (GES) after they had been found to have sexually abused some female students, which amounts to unprofessional conduct.
They are Henry K. Agyemang Ahmed, Social Studies tutor/housemaster; Andrew Adu Asabere, Visual Arts tutor; Boafo Isaac, Integrated Science tutor; Murphy Osei, ICT; Baba Sandow, Geography tutor/housemaster; Frank Badu Sampene, Biology/Bio-Agric; Amoku-Mensah Emmanuel, Integrated Science; Isaac Amponsah, Physical Education instructor and Moses Asmah, principal accountant of the school.
A seven-member committee, chaired by Patrick Debrah Boateng from the Ejisu-Juaben Municipal Education Directorate, made the recommendation after investigating widespread allegations of sexual harassment involving the said staff.
The Ashanti Regional Education Directorate, in consultation with the Ejisu-Juaben Education Directorate as well as other stakeholders, constituted the seven-member committee which investigated the allegations.
In an instance, the committee established that Mr Murphy Osei took a female student whom he had proposed love to, to a guest house at Ejisu with the intention of having sex with her.
Mr Osei admitted taking the female student to the guest house.
According to the report, Mr Murphy told the committee that he and a colleague teacher, Andrew Adu Asabere aka Prospero, drove to a pub and a guest house, but it was not in operation at the time of their visit.
“They moved to Gina Pee’s Guest House. They checked into their rooms and took some Malta Guinness. This, according to Mr. Murphy, occurred for about 5 minutes,” the report indicated.
“A female student alleged that Andrew Adu Asabere proposed love to her when she was in Form Two in September 2016. It all started when she was late to school and the teacher gave his bag to her to be sent to the Visual Arts studio,” the report said.
It said that the student was not beaten by the teacher on duty that fateful day, instead, Adu Asabere gave her his complimentary card for her to call him.
“Later he invited me to the Visual Arts Studio through other students and proposed love to me,” she was quoted as saying.
The committee, headed by Patrick Debrah Boateng, however, cleared one of the accused teachers for doing no wrong in the 38-page report.
Ten female students of Ejisuman SHS, one of who had since left the school, had accused nine male teachers of the school for demanding sex from them, allegedly in exchange for marks and in some instances to avert punishments.
Some of the students even alleged that some of the teachers forcibly ordered them to stroke their manhoods even in their (teacher’s) vehicles at public places, until they (teachers) ejaculated in the hands of the naïve students.
The issue attracted massive media coverage as the school authorities rejected the speculations.
To help get to the bottom of the issue, the GES eventually formed a committee to investigate the case and recommend possible actions.
Committee’s Findings
The committee in its report, however, was explicit that at no point did any of the accused teachers have penetrative sex with the students, adding that the Nkosuohene of Ejisu, Nana Kofi Poku, should not interfere with the running of the school.
According to the committee’s report, the traditional ruler was the brain behind a video recording involving a female student and a staff of the school.
It recommended that female students should, henceforth, report love or sex proposals by their teachers and male students to the Guidance and Counseling Unit of the school.
From Ernest Kofi Adu& I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi