Acquitted teacher no longer at local high school
(CNS): A teacher who was recently acquitted of three sexual assault charges is not back on the job, the education ministry has confirmed. The John Gray High School teacher who was cleared of indecently assaulting three 12- and 13-year-old girls in his lesson had already come to the end of his contract before the trial and the education department chose not to renew it. The teacher had come to JGHS in 2010 from Jamaica but following the allegations made in January 2015 he was suspended on full pay.
The education ministry confirmed this week that when his contract ended in July this year, the man was still on bail awaiting trial and officials said a decision had been taken to place the needs of the students and staff first. Given that the teacher was out of school for an indefinite period of time, an alternative provision had to be made to ensure that the students received the proper instruction in the subject he taught.
“The department felt that the situation needed to be stabilised by providing a full-time teacher to give the students, particularly exam students, the best chance for success,” the ministry stated.
The man, who cannot be named because of a court order and the possible identification of the girls who made the allegations, was acquitted last month following a jury trial. He had been accused of inappropriately touching three girls in his class but had vehemently denied the allegations. He was found not guilty on all three counts.
Category: Local News
He should totally SUE!
From observation, it does not matter what the legal standard is, the accused always is fighting an upward battle to prove innocence when it is a man whom has been accused. These kind of cases are A primary reason that men who might make good teachers and would like to teach, make the deliberate choice to do something else.
I remember the prison manager was found not guilty of an offense a few months ago and they chose not to renew her contract either, surely there is a human rights issue in here somewhere, not guilty = no job? Hmmmmmm
Any expat teacher at that school better watch out. A simple accusation of improper touching is enough to lose you your job.
Someone needs to ask why a certain ex senior police officer was marching up and down in the courts during this court trial The same police officer’s who little prodigy and pet assaulted the same teacher Who’s little prodigy belongs to the same gang who accused this teacher. This place is getting really organized and complicated. As for those individuals who claim they are attorneys who take clients money for work they did not do. The level of injustice rises in this place.
The lesson here is for future teachers of Caymanian kids. Are you sure you want to do this?
“Future teachers of Caymnian kids” — more mysognistic drivel.
Not at all unexpected. Shame on the Ministry!
This is nothing new. They have been not renewing contracts on a whim since forever ago.
I hope he was paid whilst on suspension and until the case was “settled”
Especially if you try to inject some professionalism in the system by challenging inadequate managers. Just shows how poor the performance management system actually is.
Are the accusers still at the school? Have they not been expelled?
Courts aquit defendants based on an assessment of the evidence — what was presented in court. So no one can really say at the end of the day that someone is “innocent” — just that the court may have found the accused “not guilty.” There is a difference.
Now what I see here is some posters assuming that the young ladies consequently must be guilty. It is not appropriate to make that judgment, especially in an abuse case. I have never come across a case in which an abuser has admitted his behaviour. It would be wrong for us to sit at our word processor and judge these young ladies.
This is why so many abuse cases never get reported. The cases start out because of an inequality of power and that very same inequality of power continues to work against the victims in the case.
I remember one neighbourhood incident in which a man’s wife went away one weekend and left the man in the house with teenage charges. (Why do we do things like these?). She returned to find the girls making accusations of abuse. Of course, the case never made it to court and everyone ended up taking one side or the other. One of the girls sunsequently expressed a great sense of guilt about “destroying” the wife’s life. As an aside, the police found prohibited magazines in his house. At nights this same man would ask permission to record TV shows from my satellite dish. (He always came while I was away and I only became aware that that he was recording porn shows when he forgot to switch the channel back and I returned home and turned my TV on.)
As a victim of abuse — criminal acts by men in my household who were supposed to be protecting me — I can tell you that I instinctively knew that I would be blamed for lying. These men never got charged — no one ever knew of their horrible behaviour — because an innocent little girl understood that she had better protect herself against further abuse from the more powerful forces surrounding her.
And that is sad, because that leaves the men involved free to continue their abuse. Years later as a young adult, I lay in my bed in the next room hearing one of these men asking his teenage daughters to show him their breasts. Why did I not walk down stairs and tell my sister to get upstairs and get her husband out of his daughters’ room? Right back where we started — as a 22 year old I knew I would be opening up a hornets nest (I do wish I had made a different decision 40 years ago) and I alone would be stung.
And if you think these are rare or that they occur in one particular type of household or that young girls somehow cause these things to happen to them — you would be wrong on every score.
Well said….
Sorry; don’t blame JGHS management. The days of principals managing schools ended (sadly) a long time ago. The M I N I S T R Y manages everything now, haven’t you noticed?
The teacher was found “not guilty” and still gets punished? The School has a legal right to protect the employee as well as the other staff and pupils. Shameful JGHS management!
Grow up. Leaving aside this case of which I know nothing about, when have you ever in Cayman seen the rights of expat employees in government jobs being upheld. We are bullied constantly by our Caymanian bosses and nothing gets done.
At 11am — I read elsewhere that the decision not to renew was taken before the trial. They had to fill his position — the work had to go on.
Other than for that reason, If I were an employer, I would not re-employ this man in these circumstances. In our small environment in his sensitive position it would simply not be a wise decision.
In a larger sphere, some posters seem to be implying that employees have “right” to renewal. Still a privilege, folks, not a right.
In this case those girls should be named for setting out to intentionally destroy this man’s character and they should publicly apologise. Had he been found guilty he picture would have been blasted on facebook. I am totally against any sort of abuse but interestingly there is no outcry from the public as to the girls and their parents actions to destroy this man. I hope he brings a civil suit against them to stop any other mischievous group from thinking of coming up with such a scheme. Shame on the girls and their parent in question
Agreed.
Well said.
The girls are minors, hence the reason their identities are protected. If they were adults, it would be difficult to protect their identities.
Don’t agree 10:42 am — you don’t seem to get that “not guilty” does not necessarily equate to “innocent”. Regardless of outcomes of court cases, we still have to keep an open mind regarding witnesses and plaintiffs.
Let us not add further abuse to potentially innocent young ladies.
Wow, so the accusers got exactly what they wanted then. This is really quite sad.
What if he goes back to the class room and these mischievous girls or their supporters accuse him again. These are sure changing times and with kids these days feeding on TV and copying the negative instead of the positive all of us need to try to figure out how we live and how we try to impact other people. There are so many out there trying to positively impact others lives but each one of us must be mindful of how we interact. Gone are the days when we could try to discipline these unruly children and point them in the right direction. They will cuss you out and tell you to butt out of their life. Unfortunately they are not getting the correct training in the homes and are very unappreciative of outsiders like teachers, youth workers, etc trying to make a difference. The kids with a positive homelife appreciates our help and that keeps us going.
Bear in mind, the Court also has no evidence to prove that the girls were lying. This is just a NO FURTHER ACTION case. There was no evidence to find the teacher guilty … nor is there evidence to prove the girls lied.
Yes, Anonymous101, that captures the position in a nutshell. The outcome of this case speaks to the levidence as presented in court — nothing more. The verdict says nothing about the girls per se or whether they were making a false accusation or not.
Anonymous 101 you must be from another planet or a relative to those ungrateful, lying, mischievous, unruly girls. God help us.
This is not a Scottish “not proven” verdict. He has been acquitted. Stop trying to imply he was guilty.
so no evidence to say teacher was lying but no evidence that the girls were lying but someone had to lie. we either have a perverted teacher or lying ladies cant have it both ways. can you?
The prosecution did not prove its case — that is all we have here. Case dismissed.
There is a reason that verdicts are worded as “not guilty” as opposed to “innocent” .