Masaai Girls secondary school closed indefinitely after over 700 students walked out Tuesday morning as a way to protest the alleged sexual harassment from one of the school’s male teachers, reports Standard Digital Media.
The girls were left on the streets outside of the school compound of Narok County, Kenya around 4 o’clock in the morning. Angry parents came to collect many of the students demanding the administrators provide them with answers as to why their daughters were allowed to leave the school in the first place, especially at that time of the morning.
“My form one daughter called me at around 5am informing me that she was stranded in town. I was terrified,” said parent Triza Nadupoi. “I sent a taxi driver to pick her up and I am now here at the school to get answers on what really transpired.”
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John Partungas, another parent, voiced his concerns for the girls’ safety.
“Lives of over 1,000 of our girls at this school should never be taken for granted. So far we cannot account for majority of them and we do not know whether they are safe or not,” he said.
In a crisis meeting, Samuel Sankale, Narok’s North Sub-County Education Director, confirmed that a student was sexually harassed by a male teacher and that the school will remain closed until the investigation is concluded.
“On Monday, our quality assurance officers started the investigations and I cannot pre-empt the progress of investigations,” he said.
The school’s principal Rose Oteko added: “I am really sorry to the parents for what happened at our school today. It is so unfortunate. I was not aware of the alleged sexual harassment case until last week Friday when I was called by the investigators over the same.”
Lemita ole Lemein, who serves as chairman for the School Board of Management, said parents could expect a phone call explaining the incident in further detail.
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“The school shall remain closed till the board gets fine details on the incident and we shall call the parents to inform them on what happened. We are working with the education officials to summon teachers, subordinate staff and all the concerned persons to give us an explanation,” said Lemein.
Just over a week ago, another girls school in Nairobi, Kenya closed its doors after a report of an alleged rape.