A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Dafe Akpedeye, has urged the Ministry of Education to probe the alleged expulsion of his client’s children from the International Community School (ICS), Abuja.
The petition was also sent to the United States embassy, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and the Council of International Schools.
The children’s mother, Ms Natasha Akpoti alleged that on April 9, last year, her teenage son and seven of his classmates, during a class project, stumbled on pornographic contents on the computer belonging to the school’s assistant computer teacher.
According to the petitioner, the boy and his siblings were expelled because the boy reported what he saw to his mother and because she insisted on proper investigation.
As an elected member of the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) executive with a moral obligation, the mother said she decided to bring forward the teacher/porn episode which her son mentioned to her for a lasting and proactive solution.
She shared the report and expressed concerns as to why the school allegedly failed to put in place safety internet filters to protect the children. Her report, she said, bothered the parents who took the matter up with the school’s management.
According to Akpoti, the school later sent messages to the PTA members exonerating the teacher, saying he was innocent of the allegations levelled against him.
Following her demand for justice based on her personal investigations, she said the school’s board of directors, last December 23, sent her a brief mail advising her to withdraw her children from the school, which she refused to do.
She insisted it would be best to submit the evidence in her possession to relevant regulatory bodies for a fair investigation.
Matters, she said, got to a head when on January 5, the children were expelled from the school.
Akpedeye questioned the school’s investigation of the incident, and wondered why three innocent children, two of who had nothing to do with the case, should be expelled for speaking up against a moral wrong while the teacher remains allegedly unpunished.
He added that no child deserves to suffer retribution leading to public ridicule and physiological trauma simply for exposing a school’s “error”.
“In retrospect, rather than expelling the child, he should have been applauded for his courage because his singular act, which enunciates the various International Children Internet Protection Laws, has saved a lot of ICS children from harmful online content and abuse within the school premises,” the SAN said.
But the school, through its legal counsel Mr. Isaac Okpanachi, said although there was indeed a pornography information on the school’s computer, it was a device used by both students and teachers and so it was difficult to know how the material got into the system.
ICS said: “The management has strengthened controls on the computers by ensuring that such sites are blocked. No student is allowed to use any computer except with the permission and under the strict supervision of a teacher.
“It should be noted that as per the ‘evidence’ which was much later handed over to the school, the times and dates shown did not correspondent with any particular teacher’s presence in the school.”
ICS management said the petitioner’s children were not expelled.
“Ms Akpoti’s children were never expelled from the school. She had not paid any fees for them for that quarter (terms) and still had outstanding fees for the previous quarter. Also, she was threatening to take the school to court and before ‘other bodies’ because she was not satisfied with our investigations, claiming it (sic) was sweeping the matter under the carpet.
“In view of this and statements she mailed to the PTA, expressing her dissatisfaction with the school, the board of directors wrote to her advising her to keep the children at home until these issues were addressed,” the school said.
