Tivoli Gardens High peacemakers get bursaries from Burger King
Published:Saturday | August 20, 2022 | 12:06 AM
Zachary Skeine, one of the four boys from Tivoli Gardens High who assisted in parting a fight between a student and teacher at his school on June 6, has been awarded a $25,000 bursary by Burger King.
Skeine was honoured for his brave, positive and quick response while other students idly sat in the classroom and watched the incident unfold.
Three other male students – Daeshawn Tate, Shane McIntosh and Akon Douglas – who also intervened and quelled the dispute were also awarded bursaries, but they were not present at Thursday’s Burger King National Scholarship Programme Awards Ceremony at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.
Several students from the primary, secondary and tertiary levels were also awarded scholarships and bursaries at the event.
Skeine told The Gleaner that, although he was not present in the classroom when the incident started, he knew he had to step in.
“It was like two minutes to lunchtime, but me did come out of the class [another class] and reach pon di corridor. So, when mi see di crowd at di classroom, mi go over there. Mi see that the teacher and the student had an altercation and I stepped in [with] the next three youth and we part it,” said the 17-year-old youth from Rose Town.
“Mi see everybody a laugh and a have dem fun. Me tek it to a different level and say, ‘No, that cannot happen’. Mi did affi hold on pan di student, because him have a temper and mi know him, because me and him a come from seventh grade, so mi did affi hold on pan him,” he added.
Skeine has hopes of becoming a police officer or a soldier in the near future, noting that he wants to contribute positively towards restoring peace in the nation.
“My environment weh me grow up and see happen, mi affi go join the force. People dead, most times robbery, dem things deh kinda get mi traumatised. So mi seh, if it can happen to other people, it can happen to me and my friends,” said the youngster, who also has his eyes set on a side hustle of being a music producer.
Skeine said he was grateful for the recognition from Burger King, disclosing that his cash prize will go towards preparation to sit mathematics, English language, principles of business, principles of accounts, and electronic document preparation management in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate exams.
His mother, Janice Skeine, was also pleased.
“I’m proud that, what I taught him at home, he actually brought it out, and I’m proud that he was able to separate the fight,” she told The Gleaner.
Sabrena McDonald Radcliffe, head of sales and marketing at Restaurants Associates, operators of Burger King, said that, when Owen ‘Blacka’ Ellis suggested that the company reward the boys for their selfless efforts, they readily agreed.
“We said, ‘They’re going to fifth form, let us give them each a bursary of $25,000 to make sure that their next step is less burdensome,. So that’s the reason why we did it,” McDonald Radcliffe told The Gleaner.
The 16-year-old student who was involved in the fight was charged with assaulting the 56-year-old teacher.
He was charged with assault occasioning bodily harm.
Footage of the incident was widely circulated on social media.
According to the police report, the teacher was conducting lessons when the accused student entered the classroom and began behaving boisterously.
The report said that the teacher asked him to leave but he refused. That led to a physical confrontation causing bruises and swelling to the teacher’s face, upper body and breast.