‘He really cared for the children’

Former Jessie Ripoll Primary Principal Sister Shirley Chung, who first interviewed O’Neil Stevens to succeed her in 2018, was initially hesitant to hand the reins to him as he had no experience at the primary school level. Seven years later, she is glad that she did, noting how fond the children were of him and the transformative impact he has had on the Kingston-based school.

Stevens and his wife, Camesha Lindsay-Stevens, tragically lost their lives in a motor vehicle accident on a United States highway on Friday. They were struck by another vehicle after reportedly stopping to change a flat tyre.

They had just completed their Christmas vacation with their two daughters in South Carolina and were heading to the airport to board a flight back home.

The other occupants of the vehicle – which included the couple’s daughters, their maternal grandmother and a driver – were unharmed, Stevens’ mother told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday.

Sister Shirley is among those left reeling from the news of the tragedy.

“Applications came in, but I didn’t like what was there. The people I met before, I just didn’t feel like there were the right [fit] for the school,” she recalled in a Sunday Gleaner interview late Saturday evening.

I prayed, and

something said to me

“He was one of the applicants, and when I met him, I thought, ‘Whoops, this is a nice young man, [but] I’m not so sure.’ With not much experience – because he was a classroom teacher, and he wasn’t in a primary school, he was in a secondary school – I thought and I reflected and I thought about it. I prayed, and something said to me, ‘Speak to him again’, so I did, and I thought, ‘I am going to give him a chance’,” recalled Sister Shirley, who served as principal of the school for 26 years before handing the reins to Stevens.

“There was something about him that kind of struck me that maybe he may be the right person for the job. So, I took him through and I explained to him what we were about at Jessie. He’s not a Catholic, but his wife was a Catholic,” she said, noting that this weighed things in his favour.

Sister Shirley said she has absolutely no regrets.

“He has been the most cooperative individual. He never hesitated, and if he was in doubt about anything, [he was quick] to call. I could go down at any time and say, ‘How are you doing now?’ He was that person that was open to suggestion and he was not afraid to ask for help,” Sister Shirley said.

The vibe I got from him

“I’ve watched him with the children, and the vibe I got from him, I liked it very, very much. I could see he really cared for the children. It was not a show because I’m there, because I would go around and he wouldn’t even know I’m there, but I would be just observing and see how the children reacted to him in a very positive, positive way,” she said.

When one visits Jessie Ripoll Primary, the name Bernita Locke is inescapable, emblazoned above a comfort shed at the front of the school. The shed is used for shade by children awaiting their parents.

Locke, a parent of a former student at the school, paid for the construction of the shed and led other projects, and after Stevens was appointed as principal, he insisted on meeting her, which impressed upon her heart.

“He was the hands and feet at Jessie Ripoll [Primary] School. He was not there [at the time of my donations], and he did not know me, because it was Sister Shirley who was principal then. But Sister Shirley had told him about me, and he has been so respectful. There is nothing that I would call and ask him to do and he wouldn’t do it, and he treated all the parents in that way,” a tearful Locke told The Sunday Gleaner.

“I was not a parent [of a child there] anymore, but we built a good relationship to help the school. I must tell you, I’m so devastated,” she said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com