Two girls in court in defilement case

P.Muscat

Jan 22nd 2010, 22:38

Where are these girls going to spend the remaining years of compulsory education I wonder? Their class mates know who they are of course and will certainly have noticed their bad behaviour long before this particular incident. Shame nobody spoke up sooner...
Girls acting out in secondary schools is more and more common. School administrators are alas often genuinely too busy to really stop and listen! I don't think this has anything to do with reforms and mixed abilities..this has all to do with priorities, awareness campaigns,of empowering all kids and encouraging them to open up and speak out, and of consistent disciplinary action taken at the slightest breach of conduct. All schools have a school ethos and codes of discipline.Yet is discipline really being the focal point of all schools? Discipline is definitely something that needs to be tackled together with parents,and really needs to be put at the top of all school's agendas...There needs to be more councellors in schools I hope this young girl, the victim, will be able to overcome this horrible episode and that her parents will have the stamina and wisdom to carry through this court case to the end.

Aimee Fenech

Jan 22nd 2010, 16:27

If as a parent you have reported bullying incidents and the teachers and head teacher does not take action then you have the right to sue the school for damages. If you go and have a meeting with the headteacher and nothing is done about it you have the right to report that head teacher. Don't take bullying for granted, it is very serious and effects the children for the rest of their lives. The parents, teachers, and head teacher have a duty of care and if it is neglected than there is a right for complaint and ultimately any teachers and headteacher not able to carry out their duty of care properly should be fired.

Andrei Azzopardi

Jan 22nd 2010, 11:57

@Joe Attard
Please assure me that bullying is being taken seriously in schools. Are you part of some anti-bullying team? I can tell you that children are afraid to talk to anyone on the injustice being done to them. I can also tell you that even teachers can bully students! Just after I posted my first post, the saga continues, some so-called bully pulled down the pants of my child in school and when my child tried to rebel he was held up by the other bullies. So do I make a court case out of this or should I go and take matters into my own hands? I'm a very quiet guy but do not mess with my kids.

P.S. This is just one of the many bullying incidents that happen. At least my sons come to tell me what happens in school unlike others that keep it all to themselves.

Mark Galea

Jan 22nd 2010, 09:44

@G Refalo
I agree with you that it is a small minority of students that create problems, and most of the time they are backed up by their parents. However, you can safely assume that many parents know what is happening in the school without needing to set foot inside. And when heads/assistant heads vanish for days on end, it is the majority of the good students who is at mercy of the troublesome minority.

Marianna Galea Xuereb

Jan 21st 2010, 22:44

@ John Portelli

It is not just the Gozitan schools. It is in fact any school that has ever experimented with gross mixed ability classes; doing away with rigorous exams; belittling academic achievement; including each and every child into mainstream education at all costs; excusing all types of violent behavior by some psychological, emotional or deprived background argumeants etc. We should brace ourselves to expect more and worse of the same if the educational authorities persist with the so called “educational reform”.

Neville Debattista

Jan 21st 2010, 16:38

@Andrei Azzopardi. I totally agree with you. When I was ten years old two ignoble boys who were judged to be much more intelligent than the average ones had had the cheek to puncture my tighs repeatedly with their biros. This they did just for the fun of it. When I reported them to the teacher no action was taken against them. I was branded a crybaby instead and consequently had my precious copybooks torn and shredded. Their reign of terror came to an abrubt end however when they foolishly took some money from the wallet of their master who had porpusely left the prize on his desk to put them to the test. Today 37 years later whenever I see their faces I feel like punching them repeatedly in the stomach. If the chance to do so would come by I would not hesitate a little bit.

G Refalo

Jan 21st 2010, 16:07

whoever wrote or assumed that school administrators are locked away in their office really hasn't set a foot in the mentioned schools. whoever wrote that the situation in gozitan secondary schools is out of control, doesn't know what he's talking about. has it ever crossed anybody's mind that a few students, ( and it is really a few) who cause trouble all the time thanks to their i don't care what the school says, daddy or mummy will back me up anyway, are really difficult to put up with. and by such statement i don't want to imply the school, administration and teachers included, let them have it their way. far from it. if you don't work in a school please don't comment because what you may see, may be so far from the truth, it's so unfair on the tireless work put in by the heads and their staff. let's not allow a minority to cast a dark shadow on two very respectable schools with success stories galore take centrer stage. you're rewarding them not punishing them. believe me i know what i'm talking about.

Christopher Debattista

Jan 21st 2010, 14:30

@Paul Camilleri: I completely agree with the boot camps. I am fed up of hearing everyday of disgusting and violent acts from juveniles. Its very worrying since most of the headlines involve very young people (I don't know if I should call them people) . They should learn the hard way for their acts !!!

J. Camilleri

Jan 21st 2010, 09:43

I dont' think that John Portelli is perfectly correct in what he is saying.

I can speak for the girls school and i can assure everyone out there, that the school (SMT + Teachers) do their best so that no students linger out. School starts at 8:30, and students who do not enter school are marked as absent and reported to the authorities.

Hope you 're not thinking that teachers or SMT should go out of the school premises and search for any students who decided not to enter school.

If Mr. Portelli thinks that the Girls School is leaving students to go out of the school, he is totally wrong and should think twice before writing such statements.

mary borg

Jan 21st 2010, 07:34

At last!! Now we have an idea about the lack of dicipline we have in schools! Being a teacher myself it is frustrating to see parents coming in and out of schools every day as if they own the place. This may seem as something positive......but not when the parents try to control everything that happens in the school, leaving no say to the head! I wish to see more cases like these.....they do happen believe me, even to teachers themselves, but our education department would prefer not to talk about such cases......so that the man in the street would still think that everything is running smoothly in our schools!

Paul Camilleri

Jan 20th 2010, 19:23

I hope tough passes will be charged upon these 2 juvenielle offenders. The more I hear about these disgusting acts the more agree with these 'boot camps' for minors.

@ JOE GENOVESE
Im eagerly awaiting your perspective about this article. I assume it is relevant enough for you to 'comment' about.

Joseph Schembri

Jan 20th 2010, 18:42

As usual the emphasis for this sex crazed society is on the sexual bit... 'defilement'. It is a word that means nothing in reality. The real accusation for the two alleged criminals should be violent assault. I am sure that had they tried to poke her eyes out with a chair leg, this item would not have made it to the news but because there are so called sexual connotations everybody pretends to be ever so shocked.

I think it is in this site that a Maltese guy recounts what 'sexual' goings on happen in class when the teacher is not there in many schools: http://malta-exposed.blogspot.com/2010/01/14-sexual-offences-by-schoolchildren-in.html It refers to another Times of Malta article.

Pierre Micallef Grimaud

Jan 20th 2010, 16:16

Let us not put all the blame on school heads or the Ministry of Education when parents nowadays, are scared to correct their own children, hence the saying "spare the rod and spoil the child". In our times, we were scared of our parents or any authority. Today, children are scared of nothing as their parents support them and not scold them, when in the wrong. Some parents even threaten teachers just because they (students) are told off at school. These children surely have psychological problems or problems at home since such actions are not normal. All I can say is that children nowadays are becoming more and more violent due to lack of discipline.

Franco Farrugia

Jan 20th 2010, 13:34

At Mark Galea: I think you have the wrong idea about what goes on, at a school. From my experience, at least, school heads are very much part and parcel of all that goes on within their school. Of course, they DO have administrative work to do and this sometimes necessitates them, days on end, to spend their time within their offices. However, they also have their assistant heads to help out.
Furthermore, you speak about lack of discipline in schools. NOW I will start to talk generally and not from personal experience: in general, parents frown upon schools whose teachers are disciplinarians. Discpline within the school is many times frowned up and does not find the necessary parent backup. In certain schools, moreover, not only is such a backup not present but problems frequently arise. So, dear parents in general, you cannot have the cake and eat it! Qed taraw x'hadtu bil-qziez li hafna minnkom ghandhom?

Galea. L

Jan 20th 2010, 12:30

If guilty, how about giving them a taste of their own medicine so that they will know how it feels?

M Tabone

Jan 20th 2010, 12:24

I think at this stage we should start asking ourselves: what motivted these teenage-girls to allegedly go that far. Many questions.... to figure out these sympthoms emerging from bigger problems. The problem is not restricted to school territory. STRANGE BUT TRUE, THEY ARE ALL VICTIMS

Mark Galea

Jan 20th 2010, 12:24

@Joe Attard
Seems that not keeping discipline in an 800 girl school should be the norm. Well, if you say so, then it must be so. But then, why such episodes happen? My friend, such episodes happen because students are not afraid of being punished - they are treated as innocent primary school children, not as secondary school ones. Shouldn't the headmasters/ mistresses and asistant heads be seen at least once a day in the corridors, or are they conveniently hidden in their offices?

Joe Attard

Jan 20th 2010, 12:18

@ John Portelli
You can say what ever you like but you can never say that students from the girls' school are seen walking around in Victoria at 9 and 10 in the morning. That is not true because when a student is seen walking outside wearing the school uniform it is because the student did not enter school without her parents' permission. In such cases, parents are informed that their daughter was absent. However, the same could not be said about the students from the boys' school because I have seen them myself on more than one occasion.

@ ALL
Please remember that the accused are still innocent until proven otherwise. I heard, that they admitted that they bullied the victim by pulling her pants down (which is an abuse) but they insisted that they never defiled the victim in any form! So let's wait for the court to decide...

Joe Attard

Jan 20th 2010, 12:10

@ Ramon Casha & Andrei Azzopardi
I can assure you that bullying is taken very seriously at all schools but particularly at this particular school. However, if you have never worked in a school you wouldn't know that eliciting the truth from students - even victims - can be very difficult. One cannot act if the truth is not backed by proof!

@ Rebecca Farrugia
A paper reports what it is told but this is not always the truth. It is an utter lie that pulling down fellow studnets' pants is not a common practice. There are almost 800 students in this school. Imagine most of them walking around with their pants down and nothing is done by the authorities. I repeat, that is an utter lie.

@ Mark Galea
I can assure you that the Head is doing a very good job. Obviously there are teachers who do not agree with this, you will find such employees in every institution. But teachers doing their job properly are very happy with their job under this particular head.

Lisa Schembri

Jan 20th 2010, 11:41

Very disturbing.....if a case is filed it better not take 3 years to end. These girls need to be put in some boot camp

ABORG

Jan 20th 2010, 11:28

i hope that out of this case there is greater awareness on not only the physical effects of bullying but also the psychological effects attached to this form of abuse.

John Portelli

Jan 20th 2010, 11:28

Such a shame to our Gozitan schools. I do believe that the Gozo secondary schools are out of control Look at all the students lingering outside at all times of the day. What are students doing outside at 9, 10 in the morning. Students should not be allowed to leave the school premises until the school days. And parents think that their children are locked away in a classroom, however, they are hanging outside. School leaders need to act quick and control such abuses along with the Education Minister.

Mark Galea

Jan 20th 2010, 11:12

seems that what they say about this school is true - teachers report student misbehaviour, but the madam refuses to punish them ... so what will happen in the future, the same behaviour from the madam?

Rebecca Farrugia

Jan 20th 2010, 11:12

What really shocked me was when I read (in the article from the link given) that it was "common practice" in the school for girls to pull down fellow students' panties as "a joke".

Sure, that's not sexual assault, but surely someone would have told these children that it's not right to pull down other people's pants.

It's very sad that a 'joke' had to lead to this.

Andrei Azzopardi

Jan 20th 2010, 11:07

These things happen every day. Bullies can be seen from early age but nothing is being done to protect our children. These bullies know how to turn the guilt onto the victim and the teachers give punishments to the victim instead of the bully. Why? Because when the victim takes stance and rebels back, he is considered the bad guy after being the victim for all those years.

If this is not discrimination then tell me please! The Anti-Bullying department is there for nothing. When cases like this happen, panic is created for maybe a month or so and then all is forgotten. Sometimes we wonder if we shall take matters in our own hands?

Ramon Casha

Jan 20th 2010, 10:53

"The Education Ministry had confirmed that the school authorities were informed of a case of bullying, which, however, turned out to be a more serious case of alleged defilement."

This part makes it sound like the school authorities and/or the ministry don't think that bullying is all that serious. This is a serious incident BECAUSE it is a case of bullying. The defilement is incidental. If the girls had held her down while kicking her face it would have been just as serious.

Claudia Pecorella

Jan 20th 2010, 10:33

How sad - don't know if I feel like screaming or crying!