The Child Protection Unit is investigating the source of the video of two teenaged secondary school students seen having sex in a classroom. The video was posted on social media.
Viewers on social media have expressed their disgust and outrage over the video.
Several other students were seen in the classroom at the time of the incident.
Michael Pierre, the Public Information Officer of the T&T Police Service, said parents should pay more attention to their children.
In an interview, Pierre said: “I don’t know what school it was and parents have to take into consideration that their children could be involved in all sorts of activities and should be more involved in our children lives.”
Pierre said parents should monitor their children’s books, see who their friends on social media and otherwise, visit their schools and attend parent/teacher meetings.
He said, “We should be more vigilant regarding any sexual behaviour. The police can only investigate when the report comes and we urge the school care givers to report it,” he said.
Pierre said a report should be made to the principal and the Ministry of Education for initial investigation.
“And when it comes to the attention of the police we will investigate.”
Lana Boodoo-Maharaj, parent and founder of Stop the Bullying, said the Ministry of Education and parents should work together to put an end to this problem.
“It’s really disturbing knowing that this kind of thing is going on in schools and no body knows about it... No teacher no principal no parents. Parents need to start talking to their children about this and having sex in a school is against the law,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Children’s Authority says that anyone posting pornographic material of children was guilty of an offence and can face up to 10 years in jail.
“Section 40 of the Children Act, 2012, states that it is an offence for anyone to publish, distribute and/or obtain access to child pornography.
Anyone found guilty of this offence is liable on conviction on indictment to a fine of thirty thousand dollars and imprisonment for ten years.”
A release said the Children Act 2012 created a number of new offences targeted towards the prevention of sexual abuse of children.
“It defines a child to be a person under the age of 18 and there are severe penalties that have been established in relation to various offences which include sexual touching, sexual grooming and sexual penetration of a child.”
The release said the police were responsible for the criminal investigation into sexual offences committed against a child while the authority conducts a psychosocial investigation to determine the type of intervention required for the child’s well-being.
