A Justice of the Court of Appeal, Her Ladyship Justice Irene Charity Larbi, has cautioned male teachers to desist from having sexual relations with school girls.
She said that male teachers who have sexual encounters with female students will be dealt with accordingly.
She explained that “they (the girls) are entrusted to your care by their parents with the understanding that you will provide them academic and moral guidance. It is most unethical, not to mention criminal, for this duty of care to be compromised by amorous relationships.”
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She, therefore, called on the heads of schools to monitor teachers who perpetrate such acts and see to it that they are brought to book.
She said this when she was delivering her speech at the 58th Speech and Prize-Giving Day of Mfantsiman Girls’ Senior High School at Saltpond in the Central Region on Saturday.
Her caution comes after increasing reports of student-teacher affairs, leading to the indictment of some nine teachers at Ejisuman SHS in the Ashanti Region for alleged sexual abuse of their students.
She said this was affecting girls and warned that “we cannot have the innocence of our young ones so callously and casually destroyed.”
She spoke on the theme ‘Free SHS: The Role of the Parent and Other Stakeholders’.
She called on parents not to shirk their responsibilities because of the Free Senior High School Policy rolled out by the government in September 2017.
“While on the face of it, this absolves parents of one of the demanding items on the household budgets; it is by no means a complete removal of parents’ financial obligations to their wards and the schools they attend,” she advised.