14-year-old girl allegedly impregnated by math teacher

Beatrice, a sixth-grader at Heritage International School, had big dreams for tomorrow — graduating from high school and maybe college — but she didn’t know halfway through her sixth-grade year that she could be raped and impregnated.

The 14-year-old’s unexpected nightmare came when her maths teacher, Anthony Mulbah, allegedly took advantage of the girl, during a difficult time with her maths lesson, to rape her twice on the premises of the college’s campus. school on GSA Road, Paynesville City.

After the rape, Beatrice did not inform her parents or guardians because Mulbah, the alleged rapist, threatened not only to hurt her, but also to give her a failing grade in class if she dared to tell. anybody. Frightened, she remained silent and kept the secret. After a while, Mulbah returned to continue his act – it was the second time and he applied the same tactic – mandating Beatrice to stay after school ended for the day.

When the class was empty, he began his alleged act – abusing Beatrice in his class on one of the desks. Later, according to her, he repeated the same threat as the first time, before letting her go home.

“After school I was trying to leave but he stopped me and waited for everyone to come out. He then closed the door, held my mouth, took off my uniform and put me on the desk, and raped me,” said Beatrice, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, in an interview with Spoon TV live on Facebook. “I’m not good at math so he said if I refused or reported it; not only would he hurt me, but he would also betray me. The rape took place twice on the school campus.

“The second was February 15, and that day many students weren’t on campus. When the school closed for the day, he waited for everyone to leave, and then he started telling me. rubbed the skin, closed the door and raped me again on the desk,” she said.

However, Beatrice’s alleged rape by Mulbah came to light when her guardian found out she was pregnant – a pregnancy he denied. When Mulbah was informed of the pregnancy, Beatrice noted that he denied it and went so far as to claim that she had said she was lying.

“When I told him about the pregnancy, he said I wasn’t pregnant and shouldn’t lie to him,” Beatrice said.

Mulbah’s alleged action is just one of many cases in which teachers have used their power and position to sexually abuse minors instead of protecting them. Persons aged 17 or younger in Liberia are not legally able to consent to sexual activity, and such activity may result in prosecution for statutory rape or equivalent local law.

Yet girls are three times more likely to experience transactional sex from teachers who address certain difficulties they may have in a particular subject,” according to a research report titled: Sexual Violence of Liberian School-Age Students: An Investigation of Perpetration, Gender and Forms of Abuse.

Violence against children and adolescents, especially girls, is rampant, including rape, abuse, harassment and exploitation – reports UNICEF. The UN agency also noted that in 2015, 89% of reported rape victims were children, 39% of whom were 12 or younger, saying that sexual harassment in schools in the form of “sex for grades” and “sex for tuition” is common.

The practice of sex for a grade is often referred to as “transactional sex” – sex for grades – and is common not only in Liberian schools but also in universities. A 2011 survey by ActionAid at three Liberian universities found that around 85% of female students had been sexually harassed or involved in transactional sex while studying. Some women said they were forced to repeat a grade if they refused to have sex with their male teachers. If a woman reported her teacher and he was sacked, the teacher often simply moved to another institution, the investigation found.

Another study commissioned by the Liberian government in 2014 titled “Passing the test – the true cost of being a student” found that almost one in five students had been abused by teachers or school staff.

Mulbah’s alleged action mirrored that of the late Macintosh Johnson, who systematically raped a third of the girls attending More Than Me Academy at West Point in 2015, with some eventually testing positive for HIV. Johnson was co-founder and local administrator of More Than Me Academy and died in prison of AIDS. News of his actions came to light following a documentary and report by ProPublica, a global investigative journalism group, on October 11, 2018.

“When I asked, she called the name of the math teacher”

Beatrice, who has now become one of the country’s young victims allegedly raped for grades, has now been barred from attending school, according to her mother. The 14-year-old’s mother noted that she was told by her sister – the victim’s guardian who lives in the US that her daughter was pregnant and “when I asked her about the boy who had her got pregnant, she said it was her math.” teacher.”

Beatrice’s mother noted that since her daughter’s confession, they have been to the school campus three times to see Mulbah, but each time they show up, he is not there. However, the victim’s mother noted that the most shocking part of the saga came when the principal told her daughter to stay home as she was now pregnant.

“The headmaster told my daughter she shouldn’t come to school because it was shameful and shameful and other students would laugh at her,” she adds.