The management of Bishop Nwedo Memorial Boys’ High School, in Umuahia has reportedly expelled at least 20 students for allegedly practicing homosexuality in the school.
The Catholic mission school dismissed the students, which include junior and senior class students on the day that they were to start their first term examination.
According to a local source, the school authorities organised a prayer session following reported cases of homosexual practices in the school.
During the prayer session, the school managers urged students who had indulged in homosexual acts to confess or they would suffer terrible calamities. Some students came forward and disclosed that they had indulged in homosexual acts with junior or senior school students.
Subsequently, the school authorities expelled these students without allowing them to take the first term examination.
A parent who preferred not to be mentioned expressed shock and disappointment at the harsh punishment meted out to the students by Bishop Nwedo Memorial Boys’ High School.
The parent opined that the dismissal of the students has traumatized them, and has disrupted their academic program.
He also went further to say that students who confessed to homosexuality expected love and proper guidance from the school authorities, not expulsion.
Speaking further, he said that a school that has honesty as its motto should not treat students who expressed honesty this way. In fact, I expect mission schools to act with compassion, not cruelty towards those who confess to have behaved in a particular way whether or not sinful.
He appealed to the principal of the school, Rev Fr Benjamin Onyemachi to review this decision, recall the students and allow them to continue their education at the school.
