Teacher Charged with Rape in Southern Belize  

An educator in the south has been arrested and charged for the rape of a student who attends the same primary school where he teaches. The incident happened in Aguacate Village, Toledo District on two occasions in the same week. The teacher has been arraigned on two counts of rape upon the thirteen-year-old student, who, accompanied by her grandmother, went to make a police report against the teacher on Monday. She told investigators that the teacher had sexual intercourse with her last Tuesday and Friday and that the incidents happened inside the school’s bathroom. Following the child’s report, police issued her a medico legal form and on Tuesday, the fifty-year-old teacher surrendered himself to police. He was cautioned and charged with two counts of rape. He appeared on Thursday before the Punta Gorda Magistrate’s Court, was denied bail and was remanded to the Belize Central Prison. His case will be called up on June twenty-seventh. Minister of Human Development, Dolores Balderamos-Garcia said that the law regarding sexual offenses are about thirty years old and will be updated.

 

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Minister of Human Development

“Just yesterday we heard about the rapes of several young girls, teenagers  13, 14, 15, and so that shows us that we have so much work to do in achieving gender equality, because if our young girls who do not even have the age of consent to sexual activity are being sexually assaulted and raped, then that – there is so much work to do. I just want to flag that and to say that our Ministry of Human Development, Families and Indigenous People’s Affairs, we will continue to work hard in terms of promoting that gender equality that we need.”

 

Reporter

“It’s very disturbing; one of them happened in a school. What are your comments on that?”

 

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia

“Now that one – you would almost want to lock up the offender and throw away the key. Mind you, everybody is entitled to a fair trial, but really that means that there’s so much work to continue doing because a 50-year-old teacher – and what makes it so much more heinous is that a teacher is in a position of trust.  A teacher is in a position of trust and responsibility and to know that a teacher is accused of raping a student that is really beyond the pain.”