Principal denies shelter eviction order
Ministry says no green light given to resume classes after families say they were told to leave school
Published:Thursday | November 20, 2025 | 12:10 AMLivern Barrett/Senior Staff Reporter
No authorisation has been granted by the Ministry of Education for classes to resume at a primary school in northwest St Elizabeth, where at least four families have been sheltering since Hurricane Melissa destroyed their homes last month, a senior ministry official has confirmed.
The families, including young children and an elderly woman, said on Tuesday that they were instructed to vacate the Elderslie Primary School shelter by this weekend, despite having nowhere to return to, as their homes were left either roofless or completely demolished by the Category 5 hurricane.
Carol Young, 63, said she was told by a “principal” that the plan is to have the school ready for the resumption of classes on Monday.
“Dem say dem need to come to work and dem need school to open, so we have to find somewhere to go and we cannot stay here,” Young told The Gleaner during a visit to the community.
In anticipation of the resumption, the distribution of relief supplies and care packages were moved to a nearby church to allow for a clean-up exercise at the school, shelter manager Devon McKnight revealed.
“Because of the exams, grade six will be coming in first, ... so we start clean the class already,” said McKnight, making reference to the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exams.
NO PERMISSION
But Susan Nelson Smith, director of regional educational services in the Ministry of Education, said no school that is currently being used as a shelter has been given permission to reopen.
“We don’t send out notification for people to leave, because that would not be within our remit to do so,” she explained. “We could never do that because we know that for some of the sheltered persons, they don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Nelson Smith disclosed, too, that she contacted the principal of Elderslie Primary after the enquiries by The Gleaner and he denied giving any instructions for the shelter to be closed.
She recounted a directive to the principal that any plans for reopening must first be discussed by the school’s board of management before a letter requesting authorisation for the resumption of classes is sent to her office.
“He said they had that meeting with the board and were exploring possibilities for reopening, but no such instruction was given out,” the education official said, making reference to the Elderslie Primary School principal.
Seventeen of the 162 schools that fall in the education ministry’s Region Five, which covers Manchester and St Elizabeth, are still being used as shelters, Nelson Smith disclosed.
DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES
Garnet Poyser was forced to seek refuge at the shelter after his house – located next to Elderslie Primary – was completely destroyed by the hurricane, which made landfall in New Hope, Westmoreland, on October 28 with winds of up to 180 miles per hour.
Young said she ended up at the shelter after her roof was dislodged during the hurricane.
“It rough,” they both said, almost in unison, describing conditions at the shelter.
They complained that their lives have been made more miserable because they have no proper place to sleep, no lighting, and that the distribution of relief and aid supplies by Jamaican authorities has largely eluded them.
“Dem no carry no bed come give we. And we tell dem say we want lighting too ‘cause the place dark. For we just inna the dark, we can’t even see one another, and we all a buck up in a one another,” Poyser complained.
The global charity World Central Kitchen has come to their assistance, distributing food and other relief supplies to residents across several communities, including Elderslie, Mulgrave, Merrywood and Ipswich.
The charity distributed 900 meals throughout the day on Tuesday, 200 more than they doled out the previous day, according to Patrenia Pencil, a resident who volunteers to help with the distribution.
“It would be bad because majority of persons lose their roofs and our [nearest] town, Santa Cruz, was locked off, so persons were not able to go get money or food or anything. Most of the supermarkets were closed, and we could not get any money because the ATMs were not working,” she said.