Male student accused of spying in boy’s bathroom attacked

A male fourth form student of a prominent high school in Kingston is now recovering after an attack by other male students last Wednesday May 8, 2013. Confirmed reports to Gay Jamaica Watch and a follow up conversation with his mother said that around twelve noon at the school just before lunch time the young man was said to have cried excuse just nearing the end of his class period to use the bathroom, he was granted the leave to do so but when he entered according to what other students told his mother when she arrived at the school he entered the urinal section of the lavatory and used it however another male student who initial accused the boy of spying and who eventually caused the mob to descend on him was mum when called to explain the origin of the accusation.

Other boys descended on the accused and proceeded to reign blows on him but it was not an easy task as the student in question is very agile and tall and masculine acting so it was a challenge at first to subdue him then to enact their brand of discipline as it were for “battyman tings” The young man’s mother via telephone said she was distraught but glad it did not escalate any further that it did and that her son was able to escape the mobbing attempt. The shouting match ensued in the bathroom for about ten minutes before it came on the outside and had it continued to the lunch period which is 12:30pm it may have gotten worse despite the accused physical advantage. A chair was said to have been thrown from a floor adjacent and above the passage from the bathroom but it missed the student by some inches reportedly, verbal abuse reigned from other students who were also at the vantage point where the chair was thrown.  

It was last year as well that another male student at a different cooperate area school was attacked but he suffered serious injuries and was kicked down the stairs and beaten with sticks and old pieces of school furniture. That matter was investigated by the police but seems to have not gotten any further. That student has been removed to another school after a lengthy hospital stay according to reports. The matter of cruising bathrooms by curious teens is something that is not discussed at the advocacy level that I can assure you neither it would seem at the guidance counselling levels within the schools either as the forward thinking that should occur just does not. The withdrawal of the Sexuality manual from the schools’ curriculum simply due to a section on anal sex, homosexuality and a guided imagery exercise on role reversal homosexual/heterosexual is another clear reason of this backwardness at the leadership and political directorate levels. Oddly the gay lobby was also for the most part silent on this matter as well which just goes to show the limpwristedness I have been critiquing them about, where is the leadership and voices when needed?

I can remember my days at high school and curiosity and the occasional peeking at other boys in the bathroom and from other boys at well after physical education in the showers or at the urinal it was important to keep your under wear on as a rule even as one showers, no genitalia exposure was the unwritten rule, a rule that I came across at my short stay in prison at the showers. There was a glory hole in the boys bathroom at high school surprisingly beside urinal closest to the last toilet stall and all one had to do was position oneself carefully to peek at another’s member. 

Interestingly not only effeminate boys used that stall for such a purpose supposedly but also very masculine aggressive ones too and there was a particular footballer who we “the gay set” observed quite frequently in or by that particular stall, turns out we were right on our supposition of him, imagine my surprise later in adult life to meet him and his lover and several other boys including a track athlete who came out to me at a hotel party 17 years ago, then we are told by our detractors that homosexuality is not innate?.

Bullying and attacks at school due to homosexual allegations has been increasing according to a source close to the ministry of education and in the education system but there seems to be a code of silence on the matter to keep it out of the public domain especially due to the connection to the powerful church groups that run some of the very schools in which they repeatedly occur. The lesbian attack issue last year is a case in point and the misunderstanding of abuse versus experimentation. That matter is said to also been in limbo despite some dialogue and allegations of victimization by a parent of one of the girls accused of being a lesbian where the school expelled her. Abuse is also a problem where other more aggressive females seem to be intent to act out their version of masculine dominance in a same sexed setting as well since in our patriarchal construct dominance suggests or projects power. Bullying in schools cannot be addressed just by flowery press releases and sleek video campaigns but direct engagement and talks with school administrators and the education authorities despite their unease and fear on homosexuality and this misnomer that the lobby is imposing such when the students themselves are obviously innately so.

Fortunately this current matter is being dealt with some maturity according to the student’s mother on the part of the school’s administrators it seems on the face of it the allegations are viewed with disbelief by them at the accompanying “profiling” (my words) and pinging effeminate traits that are missing in their eyes make it unbelievable, she seemed concerned about her son’s safety than about whether he was gay(bi) or not which is OK in the short term but how things will play out afterwards one is not sure. One does not just live down an accusation like that so easily as it can remain for years even into adulthood, persons do not forget such things and what is even more disturbing is that such an allegation can be made on just about anyone out of the blue whether they display effeminate aesthetics/behaviours or not with the usual response being shock quietly transformed into violence as we are perceived as defenceless women want-to-be.

I am praying this turns out well and I am sorry I did not get the chance to speak to the student directly to get his take on the matter. There is an urgent needs for programs for LGBTQ and especially Q – questioning as this is the stage where curiosity is at its highest sexually speaking.  Same sex attraction or perceptions of such at the pubescent level may not necessarily mean homosexuality in adulthood either.

Peace and tolerance

H