Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald said he believes the incident of sexual misconduct at a government primary school took place because of the lack of supervision and early exposure to strong sexual content.

Minister Fitzgerald’s comments came as he addressed the recent allegations of sexual misconduct between a group of minors believed to be between the ages of 8 and 11 that was reported by the principal of a local government primary school on Thursday.

“We are aware that these young children unfortunately were exposed to pornography at a young age,” he said.

“In this situation, we also have to remember that some parents encourage their children and expose them to pornography which causes these kinds of complex situations that are hard to understand and that is something we need to be aware of in this country. If truth be told, as parents and adults most times we have no idea what kids are doing on smart phones, tablets or computers and this gives them direct access to pornography and this is so unfortunate.”

The minister said contrary to what many believe, the incident did not occur late last week, but it was only reported last Thursday after information of the incident surfaced during a guidance counseling session.

“This only came about based on the level of education in the primary school when we have the guidance counselor talking to students about inappropriate touching and it was through one of those classes that we found out about it,” he said.

“Had it not been for the progressive intervention and education that we are teaching kids at a young age because we understand that these things happen at the primary school level, we would not have found out about this.”

Minister Fitzgerald said the school’s administration and officials from the ministry are following the proper procedures on dealing with this matter.

“Protocols came into place when we were notified about it on Thursday,” he said.

“On Friday we called the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF), social services, and our psychologists. We also brought in the parents that are involved and explained to them the matter at hand. We are letting the investigation take its course and social services and our psychologists have separated the children in the school are currently monitoring the situation at the school.”

The matter was reported last Thursday by the principal of an unidentified government primary school after information on the incident surfaced.

The Ministry of Education yesterday released a statement to inform the public that behaviors of sexual misconduct will not be tolerated within schools, whether government or private.