Lawmakers express concern about rape and under- age pregnancy
Legislators have expressed concern about the increase in cases of statutory rape and unlawful sexual intercourse with girls between the ages of 13 and 16 years. Several Members spoke to this issue during Tuesday's 13th sitting of the 1st session of the 14th Legislative Council of the Virgin Islands.
A question was put to Minister for Health and Welfare the Honourable Ethlyn Smith by Territorial-at-Large Member, Hon. Ronnie Skelton. He asked her of her government's strategy to deal with this problem. To which she quipped jokingly: "Mr. Speaker, I did tell the Honourable Member that I will tell him to tell his friends and his colleagues keep their zipper up!" And he was quick witted: "Point of order Mr. Speaker, let the record reflect that my colleagues on this side of the aisle, we all have our zippers up!" Hon. Ethlyn Smith noted that statutory rape and under age pregnancy are on the rise in this territory. "I regard such behaviour as menaces to any society; I am willing to do whatever I can within my power to curb them." She said the Ministry, through the Social Development Department, will be mounting family awareness programmes throughout the entire BVI community and it is hoped that they can start immediately. She said the Ministry is also looking at current legislation to determine if it is adequate. "Additionally, I intend to call on all my Honourable colleagues for their suggestions on how best to deal with these problems, for they are societal problems which require the help of all of us."
Hon. Skelton told the House this is like a cancer going through the society and something needs to be done urgently. He does not believe that jailing the offenders would solve the problem. The opposition MP said the girls are the ones who suffer the most because after they get pregnant, they are not allowed back into the school population and the 14 plus programme does not seem to be effective. "These young girls are not given the benefit of a High School education, so we're going to be faced with an illiterate population down the road," he contended. He suggested that government invest some funds now into redressing this situation. "We need to send a clear message in this society that we're not going to tolerate this kind of behaviour." In addition, the Parliamentarian noted that if the perpetrators were incarcerated, then there would be no child support. "So what is the answer? I really don't know Mr. Speaker. All I know is that we have to do something about it."
Opposition MP Hon. Eileene Parsons lent her voice in support of previous comments about what she referred to as the "molestation of our little people". She also was quite impassioned as she suggested that the authorities "take them (the offenders) in the plaza and beat them high noon", but said that would not suffice. On the other hand, she said it is also amazing to see little girls with pagers and cell phones, one begins to wonder. Dr. the Honourable Kedrick Pickering, Member for the 7th District, broached the issue of sexual abuse and suggested that the problem has been around for some time now, but has been ignored. "And it is now becoming and surfacing to what it really is - a cancer that has spread. At the time when we probably should have and could have stamped it out, we allowed it to fester and like a good old sore...it's going to take some surgery to clean it up."
He agreed with the Honourable Minister of Health who said it would take the joint efforts of everyone to help solve the problem. He said we shouldn't fool ourselves in thinking that it is an issue that we can easily solve or that it can be corrected by the court. "It is one issue that I think is a warning signal to all of us in this country that all is not well and that we are probably living, in some ways, lives of fantasy, thinking that material wealth is all that matters...and it might very well be just a wake up call." Territorial Representative and government MP Hon. Reeial George blamed the electronic media for the increase in criminal activity in the territory. "You will find that however good these may be, you'll find that they have a serious impact on the lives of our young people, if it's not properly monitored." He said children are exposed to look at almost anything and if not controlled, they can be indoctrinated into committing criminal acts.
He said until we can combat these evils, crime would continue to be on the rise. In specific reference to statutory rape, Hon. George said these girls are not only deprived of continuing their education, but also they contribute to the very serious problems resulting from children raising children. He said these females would soon find themselves at the bottom of the economic ladder in terms of wages and salaries. According to the government Legislator, this behaviour is unfortunate and indeed, some of these offenders should be lashed in public. "When we removed corporal punishment, probably we should have been telling Britain it should remain on our statute books, to be used for those persons who are aware of the law, who should be maintaining the law and they are the people who are breaking the law." He said corporal punishment could have been a deterrent, making sure that others would learn to respect our young females in our community. For his part, Chief Minister Hon. Ralph T. O'Neal said it is unfortunate that under-aged girls who get pregnant are deprived of a High School education. "I'm sorry to hear that because I know that when the Territorial Member (Hon. Parsons) was a Minister, she worked very hard to get this programme going and I don't know why it has stopped." He said this is a matter in which they all must put their heads together and use the services of psychologists, social workers and other experts. He said he himself has one teenage daughter and two granddaughters under 10 and he doesn't know what he would do if they fall victim to rape.