The suspect held in connection with the sexual assault of a nine-year-old student at the Scarborough Roman Catholic School on Tuesday is due to appear in court today. The man, 19, will appear, even as the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) continues to improve security measures at the school.
THA Secretary for Education, Youth and Sport, Huey Cadette, who also has a child at the school, said counsellors from the THA and Police Service conducted sessions with traumatised teachers, parents and students yesterday.
The school will remain closed until tomorrow to allow contractors to put up fencing. Cadette said plans to beef up security at all schools on the island were also underway, noting this process had been started about a week ago. “It is unfortunate this incident ended up happening before we were able to put things in place. This reminds us in a very vivid way the responsibility we have as a division and therefore to ensure that we operate in a very timely manner,” Cadette added.
Meanwhile, in a radio interview yesterday, T&T Unified Teachers Association president Devanand Sinanan said Scarborough RC, like most primary schools in Tobago, did not have security officers.
“Unfortunately, it has to take these incidences to bring the point home to the relevant authorities that we need to ensure every single school is properly secured, both in terms of fencing as well as guards posted at the gate,” he said.
Police said the girl was assaulted during a visit to the bathroom. Students told police a man, armed with a knife and wearing a stocking over his head, entered at the back of the compound. When the girl entered the bathroom he locked her into a cubicle and assaulted her.
School principal Phillip Roachford was alerted and ran into the bathroom, wrestled with the man and took away the knife. The man was then arrested by police. Sinanan said he was grateful for Roachford’s intervention. “Thank God he (principal) is a big guy and he was able to break down the door and literally wrestle with the perpetrator to rescue the child,” he added.