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Opinions of Thursday, 12 February 2015

Columnist: Akpah Prince

Spaco and Sodomy, The Act of Negligence and The Cost.

For all this while, I have kept mute and I am sure lot of my friends and readers will also be shocked with my relation to the current most famous Senior High School in Ghana, St. Paul’s Senior High School who we proudly refer to as Spaco and can shout our slogan at the top of our voice and proudly say we are CONQUERORS.

Guess what; our motto too is “Conquering Evil by Doing Good”.
It is very sad for a student to have passed away before authorities of the school and the general public must take to notice that such acts are perpetrated in the school and possibly other high schools in Ghana. My condolences to the family and friends he was privileged to have spent 17 years with.
But the doubts I would like to clear is in relation to what actually caused the riot on campus, the genesis of the act of Sodomy on the campus and the greatest evidence of NEGLIGENCE.
It is true that even before I went to Spaco, students have being practicing such an inhumane act; with the school authority doing little or nothing about the reported cases. The utmost punishment I am aware of was just students been sacked from the boarding house caught in the act.
A colleague who dedicated himself as a CAMPUS CID also caught classmates but after reportage to the school authorities, no action was taken at all against them because they needed concreate evidence to be able to take the necessary actions against the students which was clearly impossible to provide.
But to the recent case, it was the occurrence of same requests and the negligence of the school authorities to take necessary actions when students have on several occasions reported such cases to them and with the same mind-set, proofs of the acts were still being demanded for.
It was this attitude of the authorities that provoked the activity of students to personally take actions into their own hands because they were leaving in fear of being raped or drawn into the act.
But for the single attitude of this act among other unthoughtful things such as occultism, use of drugs that happen in the four walls of a single sexed (boys) high school that authorities were not interested in taking serious to remedy.
What authorities could have done was to subject reported students to medical examination and counselling if found guilty.
All I could suggest is a total overhaul of teachers and authorities such as the House Masters and Senior House Master from the school. You will be shocked as to the attitude of such tutors as students have even written dictionaries out of the “English” they speak.
Some are just engrossed into the pleasure taking unnecessary disciplinary actions against students such as: Digging of Toilet Pits, Weeding of Half Park and Unlawful Suspension among other things.
These were the reasons why Spaco; my Alma matter must go through this shameful national branding.
My name is Akpah Prince, I will always be grateful for what this great institution has helped modelled me into.
I am Proud to be a Conqueror.
Thank You
Akpah Prince
akpahprince@ymail.com