The Acting Regional Police Commander of the Ashanti Regional Police Command, DCOP David Agyemang Adjem, has debunked allegations over assault on students by personnel deployed to Kumasi Girls’ Senior High School.
According to DCOP David Agyemang Adjem, assertions that the security personnel used force to calm the students were not true
“It will be foolhardy for any police officer or military man to go into a girl’s dormitory and attack them. No. I don’t think that is true. But the information I had is that the students had been unruly and had destroyed school properties.
“So we sent Operation Calm Life which is made of both police and military officers to go to the school. We went there and spoke to the students to quiet down and that is why we have calm in the school. If we had gone attacking them, I am sure they wouldn’t have gone to their dormitories”.
Prior to this, some students of Kumasi Girls’ Senior High School in the Ashanti Region alleged that they were assaulted by a team of police and military officers deployed to the school to ensure calm on Monday evening.
According to the students, the security officials assaulted them even when they retreated to their dormitories.
The security personnel were to restore calm and order on the school’s premises after the students staged a protest. Their protest was on the insistence of school authorities not allowing them to go home for the mid-term break, owing to a spike in COVID-19 cases in the country.
Kumasi Senior High agitates over GES directive
The school authorities’ position was in line with a new directive from the Ghana Education Service (GES) against the students being allowed to go home due to the virus.
“We broke veronica buckets but we didn’t destroy any other property. We were there and soldiers and police came around and started lashing us not with canes but with sticks. When you are even lying on your bed, they will pull you down and start caning us”.
Meanwhile, the Ashanti Region Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah has stated that an investigation will be conducted into the claims.
“Per the briefing that I have been given this morning, I didn’t hear of any assault case. You know students when you even push them to go back they will come back and say they have been assaulted.
“But I will go there and witness it myself to ascertain if any student was assaulted and to what extent that was done”.
GES rescinds decision on mid-semester break
The Ghana Education Service rescinded an earlier directive for final year Senior High students to go home for the six-day mid-semester break.
The GES had previously declared that all form students were from Tuesday, July 20 to Sunday, July 25, 2021, to enjoy the mid-semester break.
But the management of the Service in a new statement said it had to reverse the directive upon consultation with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to restrict the “mass movement of students due to the recent outbreak of COVID-19”.
Currently, several students in over 300 Senior High Schools have tested positive for COVID-19.
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