TWO pregnancies under shocking circumstances continue to spur public debate here prompting calls for police to do something about the matter and raising questions for various departments to answer.
First was the discovery, this week that a 12 year old was three months pregnant, which was confirmed by doctors. This has thrown family and friends into a state of confusion, disbelief and outrage and has stirred the morality of the nation within the past few days to the point that many people are demanding justice.
Police started investigations into this matter Monday and while family and friends are demanding an arrest, they may have to wait a while before this happens.
A police source confirmed that there are procedures to follow in situations like this and that they simply cannot go out an arrest someone just on the say so of an aggrieved person.
According to the source a complaint must first be made, an investigation has to be conducted to determine certain evidence that could possibly link someone to the crime.
An incarcerated 17 year old who gave birth almost two weeks ago, but was pregnant and behind bars at 16, has also raised the ire of a group fighting against violence, rape, physical and sexual abuse of women and children.
The VOICE understands that the teen mother and her child are both in good health at the correctional facility and should be out of there sometime next month. However, it is the justification for her confinement at the country’s prison that is causing the indignation of the group “Raise Your Voice” seeing that she was a ward of the state at a state-funded home for children before being sent to the correctional facility.
The group is also outraged that someone who had twice impregnated the juvenile while under the age of 16 was not being investigated.
“Raise Your Voice” has since made some damning accusations against government employees at various social service agencies, saying that they have been demanding juveniles and wards they deemed socially unacceptable to be banned or removed from the publicly funded social service agencies.
According to Catherine Sealys these employees have said they would protest and walk of their jobs if the juveniles and wards they claimed were anti-social, but who are under their care, are not removed or banned from the homes they are at.
Sealys says she is bewildered at such thoughts from employees of those public owned agencies since they were hired for their expertise, to ensure that juveniles are socially rehabilitated and reintegrated into the society as productive and law abiding citizens.
Sealys wants to know why employees would want children who they deem socially unacceptable to be removed from institutions like the Children’s Transit Home at Cas-en-bas, Gros Islet when institutions like this were established specifically to deal with at risk juveniles.
“This situation has contributed to the rising levels of juveniles becoming ostracized, as social workers, counselors, clinical psychologists, teachers and their respective unions demand ultimate comfort within their working environment,” Raise Your Voice stated in a release.
The group has called on Ministers Lenard Montoute (Social Justice) and Hermangild Francis (Home Affairs), Mrs. Elizabeth Lewis (Director of Human Services) and Ms. Beverley-Ann Poyotte (Family Court Director) to clarify why the pregnant teenager was incarcerated at Bordelais from May 6 of this year and whether the staff at the Children’s Transit Home demanded her removal because she was disruptive?
“Did the social worker deem her parents’ home unfit? And is the Bordelais Correctional Facility deemed more conducive to her well-being? If social worker, counselors, clinical psychologists, etc., cannot manage one 16 year old, should the government continue to retain their services?” the group asked.
The teenage mother was a ward of the state at the Children’s Transit Home when she was moved to Bordelais Correctional Facility.
A spokesperson at the facility told this reporter that they received a signed warrant to admit the pregnant teenager, therefore could not have refused to do so as this was a directive from a court of law.
Efforts to contact the Family Court director, Poyotte were not successful as she was not in office at the time when we called yesterday.
Attempts to speak to the manager at the Children’s Transit Home also drew a blank. However someone there took this reporter’s name and telephone numbers and promised to pass them over to the manager who at the time was said to be in a meeting.
Minister Francis, meanwhile, has spoken out on the matter claiming that he will look into it and that he is dissatisfied with how the whole thing was handled.
