AT LEAST two first-year female students at Mico Teachers' College were injured last week during "ragging" exercises by senior students at the College's Errol Miller Ladies' Hostel at Arnold Road, Kingston.
It's also reported that senior students who presided over the ragging initially prevented one of the injured women from seeking medical attention. She was allowed to do so only when it became clear that her condition had worsened.
However, an official at the College said the administration was not aware that first-year students were being harassed or subjected to ragging or had been injured in the process.
"I would like to talk to the (injured) student as this is a matter which should be thoroughly investigated," said a senior administrative official at Mico, who preferred not to be identified by name.
Noting that the College has for years discouraged ragging, the administrator said: "We encourage intellectual and social development, not physical and emotional abuses."
Information officer in the Ministry of Education, Edwin Thomas, told The Gleaner that the Ministry supported the College's stance, noting that ragging should be discouraged, partly because of its propensity to infringe on the protection and rights of the individual.
On and off campus
Ragging at Mico occurs both on and off campus, but has been disguised as a part of the orientation exercise. It involves seniors using various forms of tactics that new students describe as "humiliating and tormenting" and which they say effectively put a curb on their freedom of expression, movements and association as attempts are made to force them into submission.
Students who were injured asked to remain anonymous because of fear of reprisal and ostracism. However, one of the women was injured after senior students forced her to stand on her toes, do strenuous exercises and struck her on the ankle because they felt she was not standing properly.
Other forms of ragging included seniors blowing whistles and ordering students out of bed as early as 3 a.m., placing them on parade and ordering them to run up and down the staircases. Among other things, seniors even try to dictate the mode of dress for incoming students, prohibiting them, for instance, from being clothed in what they had deemed to be suitable summer wear.
Another student sprained an ankle when she fell into a ditch after being forced to take part in a drill which required them walking some distance from the hostel. The first-year students were lined up like kindergarten children and told to follow the instructions of their "Madam seniors".
Adjustment
The senior administrator at Mico said orientation, in which staff members, including herself, have participated, involves conducting discussions with the students to assist in their adjustment to college life. It also involves sharing with new students information on the history of the College, teacher education regulations, courses offered, exposing them to the rules and regulations, discussing issues which affect both men and women, and generally guiding them towards a smooth transition from secondary to tertiary level.
"We would want them to adjust to the College as smoothly as possible," said the official, reiterating that the institution does not support harassment and abuses in whatever form.
She said those students who have been harassed should have reported the matter to members of the College's administration or the warden for the hostel. Noting that the College has for many years directed that ragging should not take place, the senior official, who admitted that student counsellors were also involved in the process, said: "We have established guidelines about how orientation should be done."
She said that if a student was in fact injured, "this is a case I would like to pursue and I would call all those involved and deal with them."
Asked what sanctions were imposed against those involved in ragging, the official said that in the past students who breached the rules have been suspended, but the punishment is usually prescribed after the administration's investigation.
