‘No sympathy’

A former education minister is backing St George’s College’s decision to suspend a fourth form student who recorded a video of a broken fan at the institution and posted it to social media, amid public protest over the seven-day punishment.

Reverend Ronald Thwaites, who is the coordinator for Catholic education in the country and a past student of the institution, asserted that the student deserved to be suspended.

“My question is, when the student saw the fan in a dangerous condition, did he report it to any responsible person? If he did not, in that case, the suspension would be justified,” Thwaites told The Gleaner yesterday.

“If he had reported it and nothing was done and he made it public, that would have been litigation,” he added.

He said if, as reported, students broke the fan, and the suspended student was aware of this and recorded the video, creating a negative narrative of the school, then “there can be no sympathy for him”.

Due process was followed

The former Cabinet minister’s comments follow a public declaration by the Ministry of Education and Youth that due process was followed by the school.

The ministry said the student’s action “brought the school into disrepute”.

Dr Kasan Troupe, permanent secretary in the education ministry, told Wednesday’s post-Cabinet press briefing that “due process” was followed, confirming that the student was given a seven-day suspension with additional conditions.

These conditions outlined that the student would serve only two days outside of school and complete “rehabilitation activities” on the weekend for three Saturdays.

She said this was a standard rehabilitation initiative implemented by the school which has, for years, been proven to work.

The student returned to St George’s on Monday, after missing school last week Thursday. Schools across the island were closed on Friday in anticipation of heavy rains associated with a nearby weather system.

“We have seen testimonials from the boys. It (rehabilitation initiative) has helped them and today we have seen St George’s College move up the rank from a low or underperforming, in terms of what we expected, to a very high-performing school this year,” Troupe said.

She said this has resulted in a 91 per cent success rate in the school’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate and other Caribbean Examinations Council exams.

“We are definitely proud of the institution. This is an all-boys institution and we’re concerned as Jamaicans about the success of our boys, and we see an institution working assiduously with its parents and partners to make sure the boys are successful,” Troupe noted.

“We support the thrust of the school to ensure that there is a high level of discipline in the school, and I do believe that due process was followed in this case and the child is being further assisted with counselling, as outlined by the principal,” she added.

The ministry’s position was heavily criticised by the public, with hundreds of comments across several social media platforms arguing that the punishment was severe or unwarranted.

Executive Director of Jamaicans for Justice Mickel Jackson blasted the ministry’s stance, calling the punishment severe.

“Rather than applauding the bravery of a child who dared to speak on what was clear danger to many, the [Ministry of Education], unsurprisingly so, has come out in support of a punishment that is not only unwarranted but excessive,” Jackson said via X, formerly Twitter.

“The State continues its support for draconian measures,” she added.

Jackson said the country has a “warped” sense of what discipline means, and questioned why the student was being subjected to rehabilitation activities.

Jackson said the ministry’s position was made worse as it comes during the review of the Protected Disclosure Act.

“We may see the issues as separate but I see a culture of silence being perpetuated — speak and face punishment,” she said.

Jackson said, with the absence of clear rules surrounding the use of social media and the prescribed rule around the confiscation of phones, the school “seemingly” erred.

“I therefore encourage the family to get legal assistance should the school decide not to rescind the suspension,” she told The Gleaner in a follow-up to her social media posts.

Thwaites has also criticised the ministry, noting that it overreached by commenting on the matter and ought to have left it up to the school board, which has the authority to address and respond.

“I don’t know how the ministry got into this at all. The law enjoins the school board to make decisions of this type. With the greatest of respect, their reply should have been ‘please direct your question to the school board. They are the competent authority’,” he said.

Last week, a senior official at the school told The Gleaner that the fan was fixed a day after it was brought to administrators’ attention.

The official confirmed that the fan was destroyed by students and that, after this was done, the room was tagged as off limits until the fan was repaired.

The student posted the video of the fan dangling dangerously from the ceiling while spinning on TikTok, along with a song commenting on the treatment of the poor.

It received more than 80,000 views before it was deleted.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com