The Royal Bhutan Police (RBP) has charged a senior school teacher in Lhamoizingkha with molesting a total of seven school children mainly in classes five and six in a boarding school there.
The case first came to light on 21st August 2023 when a young school student of the school who was undergoing counselling and medication in the psychiatric ward for fainting and panic attacks revealed to her counsellors of the many years of sexual abuse that she endured under a teacher in her school.
The sexual molestation started for her when she was in class 7 in 2019 when the abuse started with verbally abusive language and the teacher also started touching her buttocks, waist etc. This went on incessantly.
She told the counsellors that when the schools were shut down due to lockdown in the pandemic and there was online learning it was a big relief for her as she did not have to attend school and face abuse from the teacher. She passed and went to class 8 in 2020.
Once the schools started in 2021 the sexual abuse again started to the point that she could no longer focus on her studies and she failed and had to repeat her class 9.
When the teacher came to know about the results he asked her to come to his house and he would ensure that he would make her pass. She ignored the offer made by the teacher but he repeatedly pursued her and whenever he found her alone he would touch her buttocks, shoulders and other parts of her body despite her protests.
While repeating her class 9 she managed to secure a second position and the teacher told her that she came second because of him.
In 2023, whem she was in class 10, the harassment continued and he stopped her and showed her his son’s picture and asked her to marry his son and become his daughter-in-law as he would like a daughter-in-law like her.
He threatened her that if she does not marry her son then he would spread rumors that she tried to sexually molest him and asked for money. He also threatened her saying that he would do something that she could not even imagine.
Under tremendous pressure the school girl started getting sick and she even fainted five times.
In April 2023 she started going to the hospital in Thimphu and was getting treatment at the Thimphu psychiatric ward when she finally disclosed what was happening to her to the counsellors.
The counsellors informed the Pema Secretariat which in turn forwarded the case to the local police.
The local police went to the school and started its investigation and they came across six more students of class 5 and 6 who complained of similar sexual harassment by the same teacher.
The police even gathered supplementary evidence from the children a second time and sent the case to the OAG.