On our yesterday’s edition we carried the bizarre story of the teacher who was alleged to have impregnated his student. The case, as shocking as it is, only reinforces calls for care and protection for the immensely vulnerable girl child. It also re-emphasizes the need for legislations that would seek to stamp out this kind of practices in our society, for good. There is enough reason to believe that this is not an isolated case.

There are many of its kinds; only that it is often very difficult for it to reach the outer world. While in some cases this is as a result of primordial beliefs of the families of the affected victims (in safeguard of their family name), in other cases the perpetrators are able to suppress it. Normally, local communities have great regards for civil servants living in their midst. This, unfortunately, is a weak spot being exploited by people.
   
The gravity of the case lies not only on the issue of the girl’s age, or the fact that she is in grade 9; rather, it lies heavily on the fact that it is a teacher that has taken advantage over the weakness of a poor students of his, who, like all other students, might have been under the illusion of the teacher’s supremacy. This contrasts sharply with the case of the Austrian father who locked up his own daughter for over 20 years and fathered 7 children with her!

We are aware of the fact that the case is not yet in court, and we would not want to pre-empt the inevitable proceedings that are likely to ensue. However, we would like to re-affirm our commitment to fighting for social justice, thereby using this medium of ours to re-inforce calls for actions to always be taken against callous acts of these nature.

Whether this poor Kerewan Upper Basic School girl had consented to having sex with her teacher or not, only God knows, but then the fact remains that the act was absolutely uncalled for. And if nothing drastic is done, it would be like calling for more of these kinds. You can imagine the number of dropout girls this will create. This is indeed against the spirit of the ongoing fight for the education of the girl child.

The preoccupation of child right groups should some how focus on stemming current style of attitude of parents and the larger society to this kind of cases. This would allow cases of abuse to be brought before the court of law. So that perpetuators will be deterred from doing it. Well done Gambia Police Force for taking action swiftly.