By Claude Mills, Staff ReporterIN AN initiative hailed as the 'first of its kind', the St. Catherine High School yesterday met with St. John's Road taxi operators to cultivate and foster a healthier relationship between operators and the school community.
The function, which was geared towards reducing mutual distrust between the parties, began shortly before 2:00 p.m. in a grassy courtyard of the school.
Corporal Kenrick Manhertz, deputising for Superintendent Clarence Blake, head of the St. Catherine North Division, delivered the main address. He chided the operators for tinted windows and loud music but praised them in other areas.
"I am asking you gentlemen not to be like the other taxi operators who find themselves behind bars. I know that a lot of times you are not the initiators of indecent acts, and that it is the children who put it to you, and you succumb to the temptation. Remember, you are fathers, you have children; what goes around, comes around, somebody will do it to your child," Corporal Manhertz warned the operators.
Earlier this year, it was reported that there had been an increase in the number of reported cases of sexual offences committed by 'robot' taxi drivers, according to the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse. A recent case occurred in July when a taxi driver was arrested in connection with the killing of 12-year-old Janaelle Blair, of the Old Harbour Glades community.
Local health advocates are increasingly concerned about predatory men who lure teenage girls into sexual activity, and quietly alarmed about the anecdotal accounts of improper relationships between schoolgirls and taxi men.
POWER DIFFERENCES
"We are curious that people keep bringing it up, and in some cases, we've heard that it is not the taxi drivers, but the girls who are initiating the relationships. Some field work and research is being conducted on the issue right now. It is all anecdotal at this time," reasoned Cate Lane, programme manager with Youth Now, which is based in the Ministry of Health and funded by the United States Agency for International Development.
Sexual violence against women has spiked this year. There has been an increase in the number of rapes with 768 cases, an increase of seven per cent over last year's figure. However, carnal abuse figures are galloping with 315 cases so far this year, an increase of 36 per cent over the corresponding period last year.
A number of recent studies have suggested that power differences, particularly between younger girls and older men, lead girls into risky situations, like unwanted sex, involuntary sex or sex with no
protection.
"A lot of these young girls are without fathers, so they seek a masculine figure, they see these taxi operators daily, they travel with them, and after a while, these taxi men exert some amount of power and influence in their lives, and that is how it starts," principal of St. Catherine High, Joan Tyser-Mills explained to a reporter after the meeting.
