Pulled from school

A six-year-old boy diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), who reported being beaten at two public schools months apart, has been at home since March after his mother determined that he was not safe.

In a statement that accompanied a police report on April 9, the young boy, who The Gleaner will not identify, said his teacher and assistant teacher at the Constant Spring Primary School beat him with a “fat stick” and often pinched him.

The little boy said the last incident occurred in March 2024 during a rest-time period. He said he was resting quietly when a classmate touched him and then immediately reported to the teacher that it was he who had initiated the touch.

He said the teacher then informed the complainant that she was going to “beat” him.

“She got up and beat me with the stick on the back of my right hand. Sometimes she beats me on the back of my left hand as well. My teacher told my classmates to not play with me, touch me, and she tells them that I don’t behave myself,” the boy said in the report filed at the Constant Spring Police Station in St Andrew.

He admitted to talking in class when he was not supposed to and said this had upset his teacher, who usually responds by beating him.

“The assistant teacher said I give talking because when she talks I don’t listen to her and just continue to do what I want to do. This causes her to beat me with a fat stick on both of my hands, my back, and both of my ears more than one time.

“I did not cry because I am tough. I did not get any bruises or feel any bad pain,” the boy also said.

Months earlier, the boy’s mother, who The Gleaner will also not identify, said he reported being beaten while attending summer classes at Southborough Primary School in Portmore, St Catherine.

That beating reportedly happened in July last year and is said to have continued into September at the start of the new school year.

He was pulled from school in October after informing his mother of what was reportedly taking place.

The boy was subsequently enrolled at Constant Spring Primary late January, where his mother said beatings continued and were confirmed by a coordinator at the school.

“I went to the school for a meeting, and the principal said to me that I should take my son elsewhere. He said he would give me this in writing, but apparently, he was cautioned against doing this. He called me back to tell me that I should write, saying that I will remove my son from the school,” the woman told The Gleaner.

She said while she has not officially withdrawn her son from the institution, she has opted not to send him back because the matter has not been resolved.

“I don’t want them to be beating up on my son. They have not addressed the issue. It would be negligent for me to send him back,” she said.

The mother said she reached out to the Ministry of Education and Youth for its intervention but concluded that personnel there “are of no use”. She said nothing was done to resolve the matter with respect to Constant Spring Primary.

Further, she said she also contacted the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), the state institution mandated to protect children, and was told to send the boy back to the school because no one there was empowered to “evict” him.

Shay Dillion, principal of Constant Spring Primary, when contacted by The Gleaner, denied the report by the young boy’s mother, who has called for cameras to be installed in the classroom.

“I’m not aware of her son being beaten. She said that her son was beaten, but there’s no proof of that,” Dillion said.

Asked if an investigation was done that confirmed that no beating had taken place, Dillon said he had a meeting with the mother and also met with the teacher.

“The teacher said that she has never hit him. I asked mommy if he has ever come home with any scar, any swelling, any evidence of him being beaten at school, and the response was no,” Dillion said.

Further, he denied telling the mother to find another school for her son, who was officially diagnosed with ADHD in April.

She said prior to the official diagnosis, assessors confirmed via telephone that her son had one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood. She said both Southborough and Constant Spring had been informed.

Neurodevelopmental means having to do with the way the brain grows and develops.

ADHD, the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, is usually first diagnosed in childhood and often lasts into adulthood. Children with ADHD may have trouble paying attention, controlling impulsive behaviours (may act without thinking about what the result will be), or be overly active.

Under the Child Care and Protection Act, Section 62 (d), a child in a place of safety, children’s home or in the care of a fit person has a right “to be free from corporal punishment”.

The Government also has in place a prohibition policy on corporal punishment, which advises teachers and school administrators that students are not to be beaten or abused.

The alleged beating of the young boy came just months before Justice Minister Delroy Chuck floated the possibility of the Government banning corporal punishment in the home.

The announcement triggered an outcry from parents and was challenged by the Association of Christian Communicators and Media, which said the Government was overreaching.

Minister of Education and Youth Fayval Williams subsequently sought to clarify her Cabinet colleague’s statement, indicating that there had been “no decision” to ban corporal punishment in homes.

The Gleaner raised the case involving the young boy during last Wednesday’s post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, prompting responses from Williams and Dr Kasan Troupe, permanent secretary in the education ministry.

Troupe acknowledged that the matter had been directly reported to her and the minister but said checks with Southborough’s principal uncovered a different tale.

She suggested that the school denied abusing the child.

Troupe said support was offered in terms of “alternative placement”, and after an assessment of Constant Spring Primary by the mother, which satisfied her, the boy was enrolled.

“She felt comfortable, and the child was accepted. So I’m not aware that the child is at home. The child should be in school …,” Troupe said.

Immediately after the briefing, Williams told The Gleaner that the “unfortunate” matter had indeed been brought to her attention via a conference call with Troupe and the parent. She said options were presented to the boy’s mother and that the ministry had followed up to settle the matter.

The minister said she was unaware that the boy was out of school. She said a follow-up will be done to see how best the ministry can assist in placing him back in a school suited to him.

“It pains me when I hear of situations like that where because the environment in which the child is placed is not the best, they have had to be taken out, and in this case, it seems as if the child continues to be at home,” Williams said.

Asked about the reports of being beaten while at school, Williams said the ministry will investigate.

“Corporal punishment is banned in our schools, and we don’t want to hear that a child is being beaten in any of our schools. That is serious for us to get a handle on, and we will certainly do that follow-up,” said Williams.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com