The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | In July, three pupils from Green Hill Academy in Buwate made news headlines when they mysteriously disappeared from their school only to be stranded in Entebbe municipality, Wakiso district. According to the police and the narrative of the mother of one of the candidates, the trio left school in an Uber cab purportedly to start an online phone business in Entebbe.
Both the parents, school administrators, and police seem to have bought the minor’s narrative. After picking up the candidates from Entebbe, their head teacher Benon Takirambudde, drove them to Kasangati police station in the night hours where the parents had opened a case of disappearance.
Two days after the uncoordinated accounts of how the children left the school and their motives, URN visited the school where it found a meeting between Takirambudde and the parents of all candidates. Takirambudde assigned his deputy to engage reporters. The Deputy head teacher who declined to identify herself wondered why our reporter was following up on something she described as very simple and common in schools.
She expressed concern about why such things or even worse happening in other schools are not publicized. “This was a simple matter that had been handled. We talked to the children and we are confident that God is in control. That is done. All will be fine,” the deputy told our reporters. When asked whether the school had probed into the issue to understand the driving force behind the errant learners and whether there are others involved, she said there was no need to drag other children into the matter.
“We have talked to the parents of these kids who were involved in the incident. No need to worry. Besides, these things happen in schools. There is nothing special with this case. We have moved away from that matter and we are preparing for mock exams,” the deputy said. The Kampala Deputy Metropolitan Police Spokesperson Luke Owoyesigyire, said that when police responded and brought the pupils back to Kasangati police station, they claimed that they had been kidnapped from their school in Buwate.
“We took their statements and handed them over to their parents,” Owoyesigyire said. A mother of one of the children told URN that police had advised them to speak to their children or seek the services of counselors or police officers under the child and family protection unit. Just like the school administrators, police seem to have abandoned efforts of probing further to establish the actual story behind the children’s disappearance from the school.
However, child behaviour experts say that when a child engages in risky behavior like the one involving the pupils of Green Hill, it is upon the parents and teachers to interest themselves in knowing the actual story and find a solution.
Joan Makalazi, the Wakiso District Probation Officer says that such situations or cases cannot be simply closed without addressing the root cause. She asserts that there is a strong likelihood that the children’s story was made up, but the school and parents have chosen to believe it.
“The truth is at times hidden in plain sight because children may conjure up more than 10 untrue stories and if you are hasty to believe what they tell you, you will fall into their trap and there are higher chances that you will never learn the truth behind what they are saying,” says Makalazi.
According to Makalazi, if the matter is well processed by professionals, a social inquiry can be made to better understand a child’s social background and if necessary, to establish or verify the circumstances under which the child acted or engaged in criminal or any other risky behavior.
“The children might be elusive and you don’t want to talk to them before you get a picture of what they might be involved into. There is a surface story but there is also a hidden story that is more critical. In many cases, you need to take time to look at the social network, talk to different people surrounding them and later sit them down. But all this is a process,” she adds.
Just as Mukalazi says several people suspect that the actual story behind the green hill children was missed because of the way police handled the matter, the reaction of the parents and the school, which wanted to protect its image.
The story took place at a time when learners at all educational levels, mostly secondary learners, are suspected of engaging in serious and terrible activities while attending school, including but not limited to abuse of substances, alcoholism, and homosexuality, which are all lucrative given the significant amounts of money involved.
Days before the incident of the Greenhill pupils, Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said 10 high school students in Kira Municipality had been suspended for buying drug-laced snacks, which they shared with their colleagues. Enanga said the drug-laced snacks had been packaged like ordinary snacks in supermarkets and retail shops.
Although some of these tale times are shared, unfortunately, in most cases what has been revealed to the public is regrettably the least of what is known. In an interview with our reporter, a female student at Mengo SS whose name has been withheld, said many students are involved in various activities to get quick money and peer pressure.
“Students bring drugs into the classroom. Many people traffic in illegal devices for financial gain, but teachers and parents may never be aware of what goes on,” she noted.
While commenting on the suspicious and risky behaviors by learners, Grace Nantagya Ssebanakitta, the headteacher of Mengo SS said that schools require powerful machinery to be able to grasp what is going on under the desks, in the courtyard, and in dormitories. Ssebanakitta says that many learners returned to school after the COVID-19-induced two-year lockdown with all kinds of conduct.
According to child psychologist Moses Ntega and the director of Joy for Children, an NGO fighting for children’s rights, engaging in risky behaviors is common and an indicator of change in a child. Ntenga adds that it is practically impossible for teens to think about the implications of their actions or what could happen in the future because of changes in their brains.
“They are also hugely driven by peer approval, which is why teenagers can so often make things worse by engaging each other in risky situations. You can’t stop a child from taking some risks. You can help your teenager think through what could happen if they do something dangerous,” Ntega noted.
Ntega notes that parents are expected to always remain vigilant as their children reach such a stage. But what irritates him is the fact that many parents and some teachers nowadays pay little or no attention to the social and psychological development of children.
The psychologist also points out that schools are becoming breeding grounds for all sorts of behavior among children but many are shying away from addressing the matter to save their faces. According to Ntenga, schools need to open up on such challenges if they have happened so that proper remedies are thought out.
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