LEFT IN LIMBO

A St Catherine woman has been left worrying about the fate of her grandsons after she and the family was asked to find another school for the two cousins, who administrators at Enid Bennett High School have described as among the institution’s most problematic students.

The 15-year-old boys were among at least six students whose guardians were issued letters recommending a “change of environment” on July 1, after the Bog Walk-based school said it had exhausted a range of interventions aimed at changing the behaviour of the two boys. Administrators say they were the main players in a grade 10 student group that was running amok at the institution.

But while the school says the recommendation followed years of counselling, behavioural interventions, parent meetings and repeated efforts to get the boys back on track, their grandmother, Camille Webb*, claims she was blindsided.

“The school is saying that they are problem boys. That they fight, they bleach. They don’t leave my house dressed untidily, but the school is saying that when they reach school, they pull down their pants and that sort of thing. But at home, they are not disrespectful to me,” Webb told The Sunday Gleaner.

“I didn’t know of any interventions, because for me to know, they have to send me a letter, and I didn’t get any letter from the school,” she claimed, explaining that while she was aware of past initiatives, she was not adequately informed about the extent of the concerns until she received the July 1 letter.

For the woman, who is the official guardian of one of the cousins while the other lives at the same house with his mother, the letter has left her scrambling for answers and another school.

“Time is running out, and I don’t know what to do at all. I called the Police Academy, but they said they won’t take him now. So I don’t know what to do with him. I was wondering if the ministry could get him into the closest school, like Dinthill Technical,” she said, noting that worrying has started to affect her hypertension.

Webb told The Sunday Gleaner that both her grandsons are willing to attend school, claiming that they can do well, as they once did in seventh grade upon entering the school. But with uncertainty clouding the start to the new school year, she fears for their future, and questions the school’s actions. Her boys are not simply “problem children”.

The school, however, has a very different account.

According to the administration, the boys’ problems date back to grade seven, with incident sheets documenting allegations of gang activity, gambling, truancy, disobedience, insolence, expletives, verbal abuse, skin bleaching, dress-code breaches, extortion, and weapon possession since then.

One of the boys, administrators said, was absent 145 times and late 10 times in one term and did not sit examinations.

“He is often seen smoking on the property. He has no respect for authority, and he is insolent to his superiors and peers alike,” one school representative told The Sunday Gleaner on condition of anonymity. “Furthermore, he refuses to groom himself properly; he is often seen without his tie, he wears jewellery, and continues to bleach his skin. His hair is usually above the required length, and he refuses to cut it.”

In addition to absenteeism, the boys repeatedly failed to complete assigned work, the administrator noted, adding that there have been at least four incidents involving threats they made against students – leaving the parent of one of their alleged victims fearing her child’s safety.

In at least two of the incidents, the police have intervened following assaults involving them, despite one of the boys being on probation at the school for close to a year.

The breaking point, according to the school, came in June, after the two students allegedly attacked and beat a ninth-grade student of McGrath High School severely. The incident reportedly occurred on the road after school.

According to the administrators, the boys went missing from school for days after the incident, one of them returning only to sit examinations some time later.

“It was strategic, because he knew that if he came back during examinations, nobody is going to check,” the school representative said.

As grade 10 students were sitting mathematics, a team of police officers from Linstead arrived at the school with a student from McGrath High School and his mother. The school administrator said one of the accused boys appeared to realise what was happening and asked an invigilator to go to the bathroom.

Instead, the school believes, he tried to escape.

“We tried to locate him in both bathrooms but could not. It was after we returned to the administrative block that the security guard said that he accosted the student as he jumped the perimeter wall trying to escape,” the administrator said.

The parents and other relevant parties were contacted, the school said.

That incident reportedly landed the boys in court, where the family was ordered to pay approximately $10,000 for the McGrath student’s injuries, Webb admitted.

“Last week, when they went to that court, the only thing left was to go back and pay the money. The mother said that the punch that the little boy got in his face gave him a concussion, and she named it out to say doctor’s fee, medication, and money for gas. So we had to pay the $10,000, and that’s it,” she explained.

There was another incident that was brought to the court’s attention this year. The victim in the second matter, however, did not turn up to court.

Had been misbehaving

Last month, The Sunday Gleaner sat with one of the boys and his grandmother at the Bog Walk home. When she asked him why the school said he had been misbehaving, his response was simple.

“Me nuh know. They say me a fight,” confirming that the latest fight did not happen on the school grounds.

“We (cousins) did a walk go up a we bus stop and then the boy see we and him tun ‘round and ask, ‘weh yah look pon me fa?’ and me seh, ‘nuh my eye?’ and then him tell me bout me mother. Mi tell him back, and him come up inna me face and push me, and is so the war start,” the youngster recounted, insisting that he gets along with most of his teachers.

“It’s just the dean p[of discipline],” he said, noting that he still wants to return to school, though he admitted Enid Bennett High doesn’t him back.

“I don’t feel any way because remember they don’t like me. So I don’t really want to go back there,” he said.

For now, he has other dreams of one day opening a clothing store.

According to the June 1 letter, signed by Acting Principal Constance Blake, “Despite sustained interventions, careful monitoring and continued collaboration with you parent/guardian, your child/ward has demonstrated limited improvement in the identified areas of concern. Consequently, these challenges continue to significantly affect his/her academic progress, behaviour, attendance, social development and overall adjustment to the school environment ... .

“Following this review, it is the professional recommendation of the school that your child/ward would benefit from a change of educational placement ... . This recommendation has been made only after careful consideration and is not disciplinary in nature.”

Blake, when contacted last Thursday, offered that: “The matter involving one of the boys has reached the attention of the Ministry of Education, and whatever decision that they make, the school will abide by it.”

She said the school has been operating without a board.

The Ministry of Education has sought to draw an important distinction.

Permanent Secretary Kasan Troupe said the letter issued by the school was not an expulsion order.

Technical review

of the letter

“The technical review of the letter revealed that it speaks to a recommendation for consideration. This is clearly stated in the letter. Expulsion is a decision of the board and any such correspondence is required to be signed by the chairman of the board. Consequently, this is not an expulsion letter,” Troupe told The Sunday Gleaner.

She said the parent is, therefore, not legally required to accept the recommendation and can seek an audience with the school administration or the board.

The child’s best interest

The regional education office is another avenue of recourse, she added, noting that this is if the parent believes it is in the child’s best interest to remain at Enid Bennett High.

According to Sections 29 and 30 of the Education Act, which outline schools’ disciplinary processes, students must obey school rules and a student who believes he has been victimised or unfairly treated may appeal to the principal and, if necessary, the board.

Where normal disciplinary action and counselling fail and a student’s behaviour remains disruptive, the matter can be referred through the prescribed process for consideration by the board, it read.

“A principal may suspend a student for up to 10 school days for behavioural issues, but notice must be given to the student council and the parent or guardian, and a report made to the board ... . After investigating the matter, the board may reinstate the student, extend the suspension by up to five additional school days, or instruct the principal to permanently exclude the student and inform the minister.”

Importantly, a student permanently excluded from one public school for disciplinary reasons may be admitted to another public institution, provided a confidential report on the circumstances surrounding the exclusion is supplied to the receiving principal.

The regulations also make provision for cases in which a student’s behaviour appears abnormal, allowing for specialist assessment and treatment with parental approval.

The ministry has not yet responded to other questions on expulsions and school placements sent by The Sunday Gleaner two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the boys’ grandmother remains caught between the school’s insistence that it has done almost everything it can and her fear that the children could be left without a place to complete their education.

“The biggest issue is that they were not being orderly. It was as if the grade 10 students were taking the school for a poppy show, and we were not going to allow that,” the administrator said. “They wore high hairstyles, pants down at their bottom, and they were not going to class. Every time we looked, teachers had to be calling out to grade 10 students for them to go to their classes.”

*Name changed to protect minors’ identities.

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com