On Saturday, the 19th of this month in the evening, the
TV Channels of Goa, in their respective News
items broadcast a very important news which disgraced the fair image of
Candolim and that of the Candolim Parish School/Higher Secondary School which
is under the direct control of the Candolim Church authority which in turn is
under the control of Bishop House, Panjim, Altinho. According to the telecast news broadcast, the
President of NGO “Human Rights Defenders”, Mr. Edwin Fernandes speaking to the
TV Channels, cited the case of molestation of a young girl student of St.
Thresa’s Higher Secondary School, Candolim, by her own male teacher from Parra,
Bardez, Goa.
According to Edwin Fernandes, the Church authorities starting
from the Bishop are trying to squash this matter because the government machinery
at the top level wants to protect the molester teacher who according to one
source is very closely linked with the top ruling party machinery. Hence, the Candolim School management
suppressed this news from the public domain thereby allowing the wrong doer to
go scot free resulting in supporting the molester to molest more young girl
students.
According to the information gathered, this incident took
place in the school premises about a year ago but since nobody had courage
including the local politicians to raise his voice on this incident, the NGO
manned by Edwin Fernandes after getting information though belatedly but
rightly took up this issue and finally put it into the hands of “Goa State Women
Commission”. For further verification of the facts, Edwin Fernandes pushed an
RTI which was accepted by the concerned principal but when pressure mounted to
suppress this news, the principal refused to oblige.
According to some insiders in the school, the molester is a
serial molester whose dirty habit was
known to some in the School including the authority of Candolim Church that was
running this institution but all of them closed their eyes thereby making the
life of the girl students even of some female teachers vulnerable to the molester.
Overwhelming majority of the parents prefer Church run
schools for their children because of the good discipline imparted there and
moreover for the safety of their children especially of girls. But what has happened in Candolim at St.
Thresa’s is very shocking leading the parents to lose their confidence in Church run
schools. As the head of the Candolim
Church, the Church Pe. Vigar should be held accountable for hiding this ugly incident
from the public eyes especially from the parishioners and other students also
to caution them of this molester. Simultaneously he should have complained to
the authorities concerned about this molester so that he was immediately reprimanded
from the job. Pe. Vigar should have also informed the parishioners from the
Altar about this incident as he normally informs of so many other unimportant incidents
regarding the School’s happenings. In one word Pe. Vigar made a big mistake by
hiding this incident under his Cassock and I am sure Bishop is also a party to
this hidden issue of the girl.
There is a Pastoral Parish Council and Somudai in Candolim
but it is surprising even they kept their silence on this sad incident. Is it because the victim girl is a
non-Christian? Would they keep quiet if the girl was a Catholic? And what made the parents and guardians of
the girl to remain dormant or were they pressurized by the interested party?
It is sad that the Pe.
Vigar of Candolim Church instead of promoting the truth in a pure Christian manner
is suppressing the truth which is against the Christianity. He as per my
information even told the students who
were aware of this incident not to disclose to anyone. Moreover, as informed,
the Bishop by suppressing this news also suppressed the truth. This is wrong on the part of Bishop who
should in a true Christian manner have exposed the truth by exposing the
molester. In view of this the female students and their parents are made to
lose their confidence in the school management which is under the control of
the Church. Molestation of students is like a HIV disease and it should be
treated as such.
While concluding, I must say that all those who are involved
in suppressing this crime are also a party to this criminal act of the molester who should be ashamed of what he did.
Candolim, Goa.
Tel:7507394349.
