Incident reported at St. Ignatius

A man entered the grounds of St
Ignatius primary school last week and allegedly passed information to upper
primary children that was not age-appropriate, according to police reports.

No children were physically harmed
and the man left the school premises before authorities arrived. A police
investigation is under way.

The man allegedly handed
“pornographic texts” on a computer-generated document to three children and
told them to read the text aloud, according to one boy’s mother, who asked not
to be identified.

“My son and two other boys were
getting ready for soccer practice,” she said.

The police interviewed her son and
another one of the children at 4.15pm Friday.

“I’m really getting involved,
rather than the school, to make sure it’s investigated,” she said.  “(The police) have been given the name of who
it was. What are the police going to do about it?”

She said the man in question is
someone who is “known to the school.”

“I know emphatically who it was.
The school knows emphatically who it was. 
The police know emphatically who it was,” she said.

The mother said the man returned to
the school Friday.

“He wasn’t a trespasser.  He wasn’t a teacher,” she said.  “You would be able to assume that he had authority
to be on the grounds.”

Tom McGrath, the head of the St
Ignatius school, said there is no difference between the police investigation
and the school’s.

“I think we acted quickly, we
informed the parents, and we are increasing our vigilance,” he said.  “We’ve turned the matter over to the police.”

Mr. McGrath contacted the parents
of students in an email, in which he told them about the incident and said that
“the boys behaved very responsibly by alerting a familiar adult nearby.”  He also said that the school is improving
security measures.

Authorities asked parents and
school staff to report any suspicious activity.

“At this stage of the investigation,
there is nothing to suggest that pornographic images were shown or passed to
the youngsters,” said a Royal Cayman Islands Police Service statement.

“However, our enquiries into the
matter are still ongoing and we are actively working with staff and students at
the school to establish what took place and the exact nature of the information
passed to the children.”

A police spokesperson said that
they will supply more information as it becomes available.