Staff at Adventist Nursing School in Uganda Suspended for Caning Students
17 February 2019 | Two staff members at Ishaka Adventist School of Nursing in Western Uganda have been suspended after allegedly caning five students at the school. Video appearing to show the caning went viral on social media earlier this month.
“Our rules and regulations are very clear. I am very saddened by these actions and I want the entire public to know that these tutors did what they did in their own capacity,” said Lydia Komugisha, a senior administrator, according to The Monitor.
The hospital notified Uganda’s Ministry of Education that the staff in the video had been suspended.
“I am very sorry especially to our students who happened to be the victims of these corporal punishments. The institution has out-rightly suspended the two tutors involved in this,” said Komugisha.
In an announcement titled “Press Release About the Unprofessional Incident at Ishaka Adventist School of Nursing,” the Ugandan government’s Uganda Media Center condemned the alleged beating of students by staff at the Adventist institution.
The release stated that the Ministry of Education and Sports “condemns this unethical/unprofessional action,” and said that the ministry “has a policy that prohibits corporal punishment at all levels of education and sports.”
According to the Daily Monitor, investigators from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health visited the school on Thursday and Friday last week and will likely publish a report this week.
As a “reminder” to educational institutions in the country, the release from Uganda Media Center cited two Ugandan laws banning corporal punishment in schools.
Ishaka Adventist School of Nursing is part of Ishaka Adventist Hospital (IAH), a 120-bed facility located in the town of Ishaka, Bushenyi District, Western Uganda.
According to the Adventist denomination’s Office of Archives, Statistics and Research, there were 381,494 Adventists in Uganda as of June 30, 2018.