Tuesday, May 6, 2008

More unpleasant school stories

You will recall the story about the fire at Budo that killed 20 girls. Well, I saw this story in the Friday New Vision that I found perhaps more disturbing if only that it was a small story on the inside pages.

18 Kasese Secondary School girls defiled

A total of 18 girls from Kasese Secondary School were defiled and impregnated during one term last year.

Aisha Tibananuka of the family protection unit said they investigated the cases, but only two were prosecuted because most parents were uncooperative.

Tibananuka said the impregnated girls were aged between 14 and 17 years. Their parents preferred getting money from the culprits.

She was speaking at a workshop on child labour organized by the district labour office in Kasese district recently.

Participants blamed the rampant defilement cases on the failure to formulate a law dealing with parents who exonerate defilers.

They noted that the number of street children in the area had increased. Some of the children were from child-headed homes or families facing domestic violence or those affected by HIV/AIDS.

The seminar was sponsored by the United Nations Children’s Fund.

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And yesterday when I read the paper at the MCDT office, there was yet another and even smaller story about a man who had been jailed for defiling (suggestive choice of word) an 8-year-old student, giving her 500/= (about 30 cents) and telling her she didn't need to worry about grades for the rest of the semester. I find these stories very disturbing. Exactly how common is this?

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