The Tribune

THE MINISTRY of Education has launched a full investigation into claims that an 11-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by two of his schoolmates.

Permanent Secretary Elma Garraway said the ministry has received an official report of the alleged incident and an internal investigation is now underway.

"We are conducting an internal investigation and once completed we will know where to go from there. We are following the regular procedure for when we get information of this nature. Once the internal investigation is completed we will make a formal statement," she said.

According to information obtained by The Tribune, the boy was assaulted by two students around the same age in his school's bathroom on Monday.

When contacted, the principal confirmed an incident did take place involving three boys at the school, but said it was not a sexual assault.

"We are still in the preliminary stages of our investigations. It was not a sexual assault, but we are dealing with the situation. It has been handed over to authorities and they will deal with the matter from here," the principal said.

However, according to sources, the victim, who is said to have limited mobile function and a speech impairment, told his mother the boys attempted to have sex with him while in the bathroom. The mother reported the matter to the principal of the school, who in turn filed a police report.

The boy was taken to be examined by doctors, who reported that although there was bruising, actual rape did not occur.

Earlier this year, Minister of State for Social Services, Loretta Butler Turner revealed in the House of Assembly that there were 636 reported cases of child abuse in the Bahamas last year.

According to statistics, the figure represents a slight increase over the number of abuse cases reported in 2010.