If the aforementioned story made worrying ripples across the country when it was broken, details emanating from the investigating committee which probed it are even worse.
Just why a teacher entrusted with the moulding of children, teenagers, by their parents would decide to let his libido on the girls is beyond our ken. Unbridled lust? Our educational system at the senior high school level requires purging immediately.
For those who have daughters in senior high schools, the story would certainly break their hearts. We are not at all satisfied with the recommendation that the defaulting teachers be sanctioned. Our understanding of such a sanction is that they be transferred to other schools or even made to suffer long suspensions.
None of the aforementioned sanctions would be enough punishment for teachers who have desecrated the sanctity of this noble profession.
We recall teachers of yore and how they upheld the moral standards of their profession – the reason they were held in high esteem, especially in the rural areas where they worked.
Today, the likes of the bad nuts under review who think girls under their care must be sexually exploited have given a different image of the teaching profession.
The aspect of the report which points out that none of the eight teachers engaged in penetrative sex, for us, trivialized somewhat the severity of the offence, no crime, and should not have been so at all.
Taking a student to a guest house is enough crime especially since the motive was to engage in a sexual act which is not limited to penetrative intercourse anyway.
Oral sex and even fondling the breasts of students at that age, especially when the girls had no choice than to give in to avoid punishment for being late to a school function or just so teachers do not give them poor marks, is criminal and should be treated as such.
Compelling girls to fondle the manhood of their teachers until they ejaculate is a wicked act which introduces such teenagers to amorous actions likely to change their morality. It is shameful when one considers the possibility that the criminality must have been going on for a long time.
We hear one of the teachers transferred a girl to his friend to have a go at her. A non-teaching staffer in the accounts department was not left out as he too pounced on one of the girls.
Girls are not objects of sex to be exploited by irresponsible and stupid teachers with no sense of morality.
We expected to read in the recommendation a referral of the case to the law enforcement agency for further investigation and prosecutorial action which is our demand. Even before then, the teachers engaged in the nonsense should be named and shamed.
It is our position that the whole teaching and non-teaching staff be transferred out of the school so that the place can start on a fresh slate.
The headmaster too must not be spared the transfer for sleeping on his job. He should have taken note of the immoral activities of his subordinates and applied the necessary action.