The Daily Star - State plan aims to tackle sexual abuse in schools, June 12 2012

By Stephen Dockery

BEIRUT: Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour announced Monday a new plan aimed at addressing cases of sexual abuse in schools and raising awareness on the issue. Abu Faour was speaking following a meeting with the education and information ministers at the Social Affairs Ministry in Badaro.

The broad campaign launched by the ministers comes in response to the recent abuse allegations against a teacher in Mount Lebanon.

The plan involves creating official policies to deal with sexual abuse, notifying schools of a requirement to have a counselor to help students in need and generally raising awareness about what to do when people feel threatened.

Abu Faour also said the ministers had agreed to set up a special joint ministry team to intervene in sexual abuse cases. The Justice Ministry will also be included in the efforts although the minister was not present at Monday’s meeting.

The ministers said they wanted to stress the importance of awareness about sexual abuse but also wanted to help preserve the privacy of victims in particular cases.

“We recognize the freedom of the media to tackle social issues, but we need to preserve considerations of families, victims and citizens,” Abu Faour said.

The information minister will handle the public awareness campaigns and is set to address a convention of mass media about sensitivity when covering sex abuse stories.

Much of the public and private sectors in the country lack basic protections for sexual harassment and abuse. Reports of abuses at workplaces are rife, and many of the regulations that do exist are loosely enforced. Many victims and their families also react to abuse by covering up the attacks rather than pursuing judicial action.

The recent allegations of sexual abuse at St. Joseph Aintoura College in Mount Lebanon and the firing of 22-year-old teacher Pierre Shalash sparked an uproar among parents around the country.

Sexual abuse is a reoccurring crime and individual cases create an outcry, but the country has yet to implement standardized measures for teachers and administrators to deal with the problem.

Cases like the one in Mount Lebanon are dealt with on an individual basis. Abu Faour was the one who brought criminal charges against the teacher last week, with the families of the schoolgirls filing a civil action in the criminal proceeding.

After Shalash was sacked, Abu Faour promised concrete steps would be taken to deal with the problem.

Monday’s meeting was the first step to deliver on that promise, but it has yet to be seen whether meaningful measures can actually be taken to change attitudes and policies toward sexual abuse.

Education Minister Hassan Diab said the task of contacting all public and private schools and informing them about sexual abuse policies was a challenge because of the scale of such an effort.

“We already sent a circular to all school principals last week,” Diab said. “There are around 3,000 public and private schools in Lebanon, so our task is huge.”

The ministers said they would continue to meet to lay down precise guidelines and generally follow up on the issue, likely within the next two weeks.

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