The unfortunate Chrisland School incident

It was shocking and embarrassing when a mother, last week, cried out that her 10-year-old daughter schooling at Chrisland School, Lagos, was drugged and raped during the recently concluded World School Games (WSG) held in Dubai. In a viral video, the mother said she paid a lot of money at the request of the school to have her daughter embark on the trip, only to have her raped during the sports meet; alleging that the school kept the incident away from her knowledge. She further claimed that the school threatened to kill her daughter if she ever spoke about the incident.

Public outrage soon trailed the video showing amorous acts between the girl and a boy in Dubai. The video was posted on the Instagram page of a music executive, Ubi Franklin. The mother alleged that some students filmed the romantic scene and posted it online after her daughter was assaulted. She further disclosed that when the school was confronted about the incident, they suspended her daughter. However, the content of the video show that her allegations may not be totally true.

The indefinite suspension was conveyed to the girl’s parents in a letter purportedly signed by its head teacher, G. I. Azike, noting that their daughter was involved in improper behaviour during the recently concluded WSG in Dubai. Intimating the parents further, the letter stated: “With a few of her counterparts, she willfully participated in a game they called ‘Truth or Dare’, a game which led her and a few other co-learners to carry out the immoral act after the lights out instruction was given.” Six out of the 77 students who represented the school at the WSG were allegedly involved in the misconduct.

The decision by the Lagos State Government to close down all Chrisland schools in the state when the incident was reported was apt. The state government immediately called on relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), including the Ministry of Education and the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency, to investigate the incident, just as the police invited all parties in the incident for questioning. The Lagos government has now reopened the schools.

Reacting to allegations of negligence, the school said the students were kept in separate rooms and floors; with boys on the fourth floor of the hotel and girls on the 11th. The school also said neither rape nor the administration of a pregnancy test on any child took place under its watch. However, the school’s explanation that effort to reach the victim’s parents proved futile is not tenable. The school would have reached the parents by any means if, for example, payment of fees owed it was involved.

We further find the school’s decision in its letter to the victim’s parents, which placed the victim on indefinite suspension until “the parents ensure that she is punished, adequately counseled and rehabilitated” as unprofessional. By this, the school is only pretending to be self-righteous as if it isn’t part of the process provided for sanctioning erring pupils and staff. This is even as the misconduct took place under its watch.

The video clip on the incident shows an obvious collapse of cultural values in the Nigerian society. Poor parenting among many families has critically eaten into the society’s moral fabric. Adults must appreciate the imperatives for rescuing and rejuvenating the derailed pattern of child upbringing that was once a pride in African societies. We advise Nigerian parents and adults to abandon their outrageous obsession for Western culture; celebrating it as if everything about it is right.

The moral tone in schools is always a reflection of what obtains in the larger society. Indeed, some teachers need more counseling than their pupils. Lack of effective monitoring mechanisms and negligence on the part of teachers that accompanied the pupils to Dubai is a prime factor in the alleged scandal. A supervisor at Chrisland School was in 2019 sentenced to 60 years imprisonment for defiling a 2-year-old child. Balancing between moral standards and over-pampering by parents has remained a challenge in schools that charge very high fees.

The weird outing of Chrisland pupils is not unexpected, where children have free access to unregulated contents which they have no business accessing on the social media. It’s time for the National Film and Video Sensors Board (NFVSB) to review operational guidelines as they relate to the contents of entertainment programmes on Nigerian television channels. Some uncultured contents in Nigerian music also call for a review of standards within the industry. Relevant departments in state ministries of education are urged to strengthen their monitoring of operations of private schools to ensure that guidelines for trips involving boys and girls are complied with.

While we call for the report of the investigation panel to spell out failures that led to the unfortunate incident and recommend sanctions, we insist that failure to discipline parties found wanting, including the school, teachers and students, will only sustain immorality in schools.