This is the first of a three-part series examining the prevalence of sexual activity among elementary school pupils in St. Maarten. Sixteen persons, among them nine representatives of the five elementary-school boards contributed to this series. Due to the sensitive nature of the subject, school officials interviewed asked not to be identified.
By Judy H. Fitzpatrick
PHILIPSBURG--A group of six-year-olds watch as one of their male classmates lures a five-year-old female pupil into a school bathroom, urges her to remove her underwear, then proceeds to lie on her.
In another case, a six-year-old girl invites one of her female peers under a school table, pulls down her undergarment and asks her classmate to kiss her vagina in a game of "boy and girl."
In other cases, a seven-year-old boy threatens to "bull" (anal rape) another pupil in the presence of his cheering peers; two sixth-grade boys hold down a female pupil in a gym and haul down her underwear, but she manages to escape their grasp before anything happens; and seven-year-olds gang up to "hump" behind a quiet peer probably too scared to report it.
These are samples of the list of witnessed, recorded and reported cases of sexual activity and sexual assaults that take place among pupils in the elementary-school system in St. Maarten.
While sexual activity in schools, including elementary schools, is nothing new, there are concerns about the growing incidence of such activity in the elementary schools. What some regard as perhaps the most startling feature of the problem is that in some reported cases, such as inappropriate touching and boys "grinding" behind girls, the activities are done in a playful manner and are sometimes seen as being "normal" by the children involved.
Some persons classify the reported cases of sexual activity as children experimenting, but a number of education officials and health professionals say it's an issue that should be addressed at the very first sign or it can lead to what psychologist Dr. Judith Arndell describes as "destructive behaviour" and become an "obsession."
"I am not convinced that kids who are that young are really engaged in sex, but then it depends on what they were exposed to," said Mayra Martina, one of several persons from the Preventative Health Department, Youth Health Care section, who visits elementary schools to deliver age-appropriate sex education classes. "In some cases it's just young kids experimenting."
Curriculum Developer Celia Stewart said that when very young children engage in sexual acts, it's not really sexual, but more cases of their imitating what they have seen.
But even as school officials contemplate and discuss ways of addressing this issue that many people would rather not talk about openly, they say they are faced with the lack of adequate support systems to effectively tackle the concerns with which they are confronted almost daily.
However, the major part of the task of dealing with the problem was laid at the doorstep of parents. Education officials say the parents seem to be abdicating their responsibilities and leaving it up to schools to raise their children.
One of St. Maarten HIV/AIDS Programme Manager Suzette Moses-Burton's primary concerns is the potential risks of contracting Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) to which young people who are neither emotionally nor physically developed are exposing themselves.
Dr. Arndell said early sexual initiation affected children's emotional and psychological development and can leave permanent emotional scars.
Leader of Government Education Commissioner William Marlin said the issue had his government's attention and it was assessing the available support services to address the deficiencies that exist.
Incidents
All school officials interviewed for this series acknowledged that some form of inappropriate activities occurred at their schools.
However, while some schools say they are only confronted with minor incidents such as inappropriate touching and kissing, at some schools the problems were much more serious and ranged from serious threats of (anal) rape and pupils lying on top of each other in school bathrooms to pupils engaging in activities under school desks, forced activities such as groups of pupils holding down other pupils, and lesbian activities among girls.
Some of these incidents at schools are clear cases of sexual assault. One school principal reported an incident that had occurred sometime ago in which a female sixth grader was held down by two of her male peers in an unsupervised school gym and her underwear forcefully removed. Luckily, this incident did not go any further, as the girl managed to escape the grasp of the perpetrators.
The gravity of the situation prompted school authorities to summon the police, and the two boys were locked up for two days and counselled by representatives of the Police Juvenile Unit before being released.
That school has since put measures in place to ensure that its gym is not accessible by pupils unless they are supervised and reported that, while incidents of inappropriate touching still occurred, there had been no other similar serious cases at that school.
Educator Glenderlin Davis-Holiday, in the field since 1983, and Dr. Arndell said that in some cases some very graphic inappropriate language was used by pupils. Davis-Holiday alluded to words such as "sucking" and "licking" each other's private parts as some she had heard.
Arndell said she was shocked at how some children as young as four and five years old were able to provide details of specific oral sexual acts to her.
Seasoned educator and Guidance Counsellor Silveria Jacobs said that when children spoke about "playing the game," the "sex game" or the "penis game," they usually were referring to imitating adult sexual behaviour. Another educator said children usually played certain games that included inappropriate behaviour, such as "doctor," "feeling up," "humping" and "grinding" (making sexual movements behind each other).
The educators' challenges are compounded by the large number of incest cases that often surface. One school social worker said this occurred "too often." This social worker recorded three new cases of incest during the 2008-2009 school year alone, but said this was in no way a reflection of the actual number of cases that exist.
Exception, not rule
Although most school officials interviewed reported an increase in sex-related activities among pupils, others contended that the incidents that occurred were only incidental and were the exception rather than the rule.
"It's not every child in every school that is having sex," said Foundation-Based Education (FBE) Curriculum Developer Celia Stewart. "[Incidents that occur] are the exception rather than the rule. Some tend to make the rule the exception, but then again there has been an increase in incest. It could also be that kids are more vocal, but there is no scientific data on this."
Added Davis-Holiday: "I don't think it's that prevalent. If it were happening on a regular basis, it would reach us at [the Department of Public Education]." It's usually just a handful of children at some schools who engage in certain activities and in these cases there has to be quick intervention and the pupils monitored, she said.
Dr. Arndell, who has counselled during her two-decade-long career pupils who had had early sexual initiation, said she had noticed an upward trend in sexual encounters in which children were involved – a view shared by most of those interviewed.
"It is definitely something that you are seeing and hearing more and more of. With boys there is a lot of inappropriate touching in the sense of play. It's very common, but goes back to the home environment," said Arndell.
Father's nightmare
One very irate father, Jerry (not his real name), told this reporter that his six-year-old daughter (then five years old) had been lured into a school bathroom last November by a group of boys, one of whom asked her to remove her undergarments then had laid on top of her.
Jerry said the incident had not been reported to him immediately, though school officials said the mother, with whom the child lives, had been notified immediately.
Jerry contacted the school immediately when he heard of it, and subsequently the Insular Department of Education. He said he had learnt during a meeting with school officials on the matter that two of the boys involved had carried out similar activities on at least three previous occasions, each time drawing more children into it.
He also said one of the children reportedly had been involved in similar cases in the community where the child lives and wondered why the school hadn't taken firm action against the "masterminds."
Jerry said his request to have his child transferred to another school had been denied and he had been advised by the school officials to put his child in a private school, which he said he could not afford, as the monthly fee was more than US $600.
Jerry said he had become even more angry when, about two weeks ago his daughter had invited one of her classmates under a table and asked her to "play boy and girl" by kissing her vagina.
Jerry, who has since started taking his daughter to a psychologist for specialist help, is convinced that his daughter was adversely affected by the earlier incident and is now initiating sexual acts. Breaking down in tears, Jerry said the system was allowing his daughter to remain in class with the young perpetrators, to be re-victimised.
He raised questions about the level of supervision at the school and wondered how long the matter had been going on before he became aware of it. The particular class teacher has since been reassigned.
A social worker who weighed in on this case said this could be a case of "re-victimisation," where the girl could have been acting out an inappropriate experience that had not been addressed. The social worker said many youngsters were re-victimised during their lifetimes when their issues were ignored or not addressed professionally. These children often become "targets" for perpetrators and unless there is proper intervention, it becomes a "vicious cycle."
The father said he was also concerned about reports from the school that it had misplaced his child's file and that his daughter had been given failing grades in almost all of her tested areas. He is convinced that the class teacher is being vindictive because he was critical of her handling of the issues involving his daughter. He is also concerned that his request for his daughter to re-sit her tests was turned down.
In invited comments, the school's vice principal and Adjunct Director of Public Education Davis-Holiday acknowledged receiving a report about the incident and said there had been immediate intervention when the school became aware of the situation.
The vice principal said though that while all five pupils involved had been referred to a specialist for counselling, only two had been taken to see the psychologist. Jerry was one of the parents who did not take his daughter immediately following the first incident, the vice principal said, adding that while the issue was a concern, in the first incident Jerry's daughter had been one of the initiators and not the follower.
Relocating the pupil, the vice principal noted, was not the solution, as the child needed counselling to address the issue.
Davis-Holiday said only if the problem persisted and the school saw the need to transfer the child would transfer be considered.
The school's vice principal explained that children acted out what they saw. She appealed to parents to be vigilant about what they expose their children to. "The safety and health of our pupils are our main concern and we will continue to work together with their parents to ensure this," the vice principal said.
In the meantime, the perturbed father believes the system has failed his child.
