Young transgender person accused in inappropriate touching incident

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A transgender individual was arrested last Friday over sexual accusations involving three male students from St Frances Elementary School last week.

The incident led to the early closing of the Catholic school on Thursday and for the full day Friday, with classes scheduled to resume today, Monday, March 13, 2023.

Police told Samoa News the individual is alleged to have touched the three boys inappropriately. They are between 9-10 years of age.

The individual will make an initial appearance in the District Court today.

The accused, according to police was working as a cleaner at St Frances Elementary.

Efforts were made to get comments from school officials on Friday but were unsuccessful as of press time.

In the meantime, police confirmed they executed the arrest warrant on Friday afternoon and took into custody the young transgender person, who was remanded to the Tafuna Correctional Facility.