Recently, the news has been wrapped up by the allegations against economics teacher Coen Jackson from The Bishops’ High School. My last column focused on the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, and indicated some ways in which I thought the response toward the women were similar to the Guyanese response to the death of Kescia Branche. Little did I know that soon an even more analogous situation would arise within Guyana.
Now whilst the allegations levelled are serious and deserve a whole column to themselves, I have decided to write about the response to the news. The first is that of Jackson himself, who, upon being accused held a press conference with which he aimed to answer questions and “share his side of the story”. In the conference, Jackson sought to paint the ordeal as that of one of a personal disagreement between himself and Ruel Johnson, which escalated into Johnson seeking to destroy his reputation. What irks me about this explanation is that it delegitimises any claims made by former students independent of Ruel Johnson. Following the posts made by Johnson on social media, numerous students subsequently came forward, sharing their stories on their own profiles. Yet, when asked specifically about one student, Melissa Atwell, Attorney Jerome Khan responded saying that they do not know the true identity of the person behind the profile, and that it could secretly be Johnson, saying “We’re not going to get into specifics because the social media with which you referred to is inundated with people who maybe anonymous, pretending to be one person or another… suppose now it’s Ruel Johnson posing as the victim.”
This, I thought, was incredibly absurd. If this is the case, has Johnson been impersonating her since 2009 (which is when she joined Facebook)? Did he spend years uploading pictures of a girl whom he is not, add her real-life friends and family, and add the places she has worked with the sole purpose that one day in 2017 he would use this profile to sully the reputation of Coen Jackson? Or did he recently commandeer her profile without anyone noticing just to make this post? Now, in cases of sexual abuse, victims get treated with a lot of suspicion, but doubting the existence of a person? Maybe Khan meant that he didn’t doubt that a Melissa Atwell existed, but that she was not the person controlling the profile. Either way, it seems highly unlikely that Johnson managed to impersonate her for such a long time with such high accuracy, fooling all of her own friends, unless, of course, those are fake profiles as well.
Secondly, there was the response of Ms Winifred Ellis, the headmistress of The Bishops’ High School. In an assembly she can be heard calling the girls “loose” and “slack”, and even asking those who have been abused to step out, in front of everyone. The public is rightfully inflamed by such comments, but what saddens me is that this is what we are accustomed to hearing within schools. Yes, this time it was publicised, but in everyday situations, schoolgirls are sexualised and blamed for advances made towards them. It is as though it is expected that boys will not be able to control themselves, and that girls have to do everything in their power to ensure that a situation does not arise in which a male will have the opportunity to take advantage of them. If this does happen, the male is not at fault for being unable to control himself, but the girl is because she should have never allowed such a situation to occur to begin with. However, in this instance, doing so is incredibly reprehensible, because you are holding young girls to a higher moral standard not to just their male classmates, but to an adult teacher who is expected to look out for the best interests of his students.
Thirdly is the response of the public. Of course, there are those who blame the girls, who say that they took too long to come forward, that they were complicit, but there are also those who clearly recognise this as being wrong. A teacher abused his power over students, in some allegations even using his position as a teacher to take cell numbers from their school files, and in such a case, the girl cannot be blamed. It strikes me as twisted that Jackson admits to having relationships with former students. Personally, I believe that there should be some moral barrier that stops a teacher from seeing a student, especially one who you taught during their adolescence (past or present) as sexual in any way, which stops them from considering a sexual relationship. I am glad that the public is angry. They should be. They are right to protest, and call for justice, investigation and a change in the system. But they should remember that comments such as those from Ms Ellis are heard almost every day by female students, and that this fight against victim blaming does not end with her resignation. It is, however, a good start.
