Child Rights International Ghana has called on the management of Adisadel College to overturn the suspension of students who were involved in an assault incident.
The Senior High School (SHS) has been in the news for over 48 hours after a video of a student assaulting his colleague went viral.
The incident, which has been widely condemned, showed a student locking the arms of another and forcefully hitting his face against a metal bed, resulting in profuse bleeding below the victim’s right eye.
Management on Tuesday suspended the victim over his refusal to report the incident while the culprit has been outrightly dismissed.
But the advocacy organisation has described the suspension as harsh and must be rescinded.
In a statement, Child Rights called for a proper investigation to address the criminality of the act.
“The alleged act committed is criminal in nature and the institution must address the criminality of it based on a proper investigation to obtain a social enquiry report that will determine the kind of systems and the punishment regime to be offered to the parties involved.
“The parties may include the victim, the perpetrator, and non-participating students who encouraged the act and those who have been entrusted with a standard of care,” the statement read in parts.
Child Rights has further called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to uphold the decision only if the presence of the students in the school poses an extreme threat to others.
“Despite the undeniable role the GES plays in this case, it is our view that the decision to dismiss the students is not informed by appropriate investigative channels and a social enquiry report.
“Therefore GES must rescind their decision and reinstate the students in the school unless their presence poses extreme threat to other students and such removal must be in accordance with Section 2 (1), (2), 8 (1).& 18 (1), (m) & (n) of the Children’s Act, 1998 (Act 560). Any decision taken in this process must always have the best interest of the CHILD,” the statement admonished.
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Read the full statement below: