Two suspended amid abuse claims at Clifton Boys’ Home
Published:Thursday | April 15, 2021 | 12:12 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Two staff members have been suspended as the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) and the board of the Clifton Boys’ Home probe allegations that more than half of the wards at the home had been beaten with a switch.
Among those suspended is the facility’s long-serving superintendent, triggering a search for a temporary appointee to supervise the operations at the home until the probe has been completed.
Chairman of the Westmoreland-based home, the Reverend Hartley Perrin, said that his board will be meeting with the home’s administration and representatives of the CPFSA on the matter.
“The CPFSA is manning the home at the moment, but they will not be able to man the home for any extended period of time,” Perrin told The Gleaner yesterday. “We are to have a board meeting which will include the members of that government agency, so we will knock our heads together and identify someone who will step in to fill the breach until the process can go through, in terms of advertising and interviewing for the position.”
Reports recently surfaced about four wards being beaten at the facility, which is one of three children’s homes operated by the Anglican Church in Jamaica.
The superintendent and a duty officer, who were both suspended, are being accused of using corporal punishment on 11 of the 21 boys housed at the facility. The boys were reportedly beaten with a switch.
“The officers from CPFSA were able to identify 11 of the 21 boys, who said that at one stage or another, they were beaten or had corporal punishment administered to them. Because of a video clip which they were able to show, we realised that there is some truth in the allegation they were making about corporal punishment,” said Perrin.
“That is inconsistent with the established principles of the home because we feel that other measures ought to have been used. What these other measures are is another story, but it is the level of control and maturity which we have to exhibit that will make the difference,” added Perrin.
He added that no relative of the boys had contacted him as yet over the allegations.
The reported abuse is a scar on the Clifton Boys’ Home, which was destroyed in a fire on January 15, 2017, leaving 28 boys homeless. Reconstruction of the home began in March 2019 and was completed last October at a cost of $60 million.