Female students at Kwekwe Polytechnic College reportedly endured a dehumanising experience last Thursday when they were forced to “lift their skirts” or “lower trousers” in front of their lecturers to prove they had not soiled toilets with menstrual fluid.
Trouble started when a toilet in the Commerce department was soiled after a female student reportedly dumped used sanitary pads into one of the toilets and stained floors with blood much to the chagrin of college authorities.
In an effort to flush out the culprit, female lecturers were reportedly asked to round up all females from the department.
Affected students — some of them married women — told NewsDay they queued before the head of the Commerce department, only identified as Marandure, removing their inner clothing to reveal their privates.
“This was the most humiliating experience of my life having to remove my clothes in front of a stranger just to prove I was not the one who had messed up the toilet,” said one of the affected students.
Over 10 students, who on that day were on periods, were later forced to clean the toilet after the “detectives” failed to single out the student responsible for dumping the pad into the toilet.
Contacted for comment, Marandure refused to entertain questions from NewsDay and referred the paper to college principal Joice Mbudzi.
Mbudzi, in the presence of vice-principal Sister Irene Mapuranga, told NewsDay he was shocked to hear that such a dehumanising incident had happened at the college.
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“We will investigate these allegations. Never in my life here have students been subjected to such treatment,” Mbudzi said.
