Tivoli boy says he acted in self-defence

The Tivoli Gardens High student charged with assault after a classroom brawl with a 56-year-old teacher on Monday has claimed that he acted in self-defence.

Speaking with The Gleaner on Wednesday with the consent of his mother, Debraly Coleman, the 10th-grader admitted that he ignored an instruction not to enter the room but has argued that he was attacked. He has, however, expressed remorse for his role in the bust-up and regrets that the school’s image may have been tarnished.

A viral video of the incident has sparked national outrage amid the spiralling incidence of violence in schools – a concern that has heightened with the ubiquity of camera-ready cell phones capturing every fight or skirmish.

The 16-year-old said he had gone to the classroom to buy sweets from a female student during the lunch break.

He claimed that a school bag was initially thrown at him.

“When me turn ‘round, a di bag me see she fling and lick mi right inna me face. So me say, ‘No, man! How she a fling bag a lick mi inna mi face and mi nuh do her nothing or say nothing bad to her?’” he recounted asking himself.

The boy admitted that he threw the bag back at the teacher, allegedly hitting her in the chest.

He said he felt humiliated when the teacher reportedly demanded that he exit the classroom, bellowing, “Come out! Come out!”

Numerous calls made to Dean of Discipline Carmen Joseph and the school’s office went unanswered Wednesday.

The widely circulated video has again turned the spotlight on schools as a toxic, explosive environment, made worse, experts say, by the long hiatus of order in face-to-face classes because of coronavirus-induced restrictions.

The footage showed both the teacher and student in an altercation, with the teacher taking up a desk with the apparent intent of striking the 16-year-old. But the boy grabbed the desk and tossed it aside.

He believes that he could have sustained serious injuries if he had not seized the desk from the teacher, who shares the same age as his mother.

“She’s a teacher and a school mi deh, so mi nah go think fi do that ... . Mi nah think fi lick her in the first place,” he said.

“A defend mi defend miself, you know, because me nah go stand up and make nobody hurt me and a school mi deh.”

Coleman is a single mother of seven. She said she was shocked when she got the news of her son’s arrest while selling produce from her fruit stall in Coronation Market, Kingston.

The family, she said, was embarrassed about the series of events.

“Me feel bad about it, you know. ... It makes me worry. Mi nuh send him to go fight, mi send him fi go learn,” she said in a Gleaner interview Wednesday.

“What mi understand from the video is, I say to myself say it look like the teacher is the aggressor ... ,” Coleman said.

“If a student into your class giving you trouble, you supposed to go to the principal or even the dean or security guard and get him out of the class,” she added.

She has also put blame at the feet of her son, noting that he, too, should have exited the classroom on the instruction of the teacher.

Coleman is hopeful that her son will not be expelled.

She said his behaviour was out of character and that he did not have a record of misconduct.

“I’m telling you, he’s a bright student and mi never have no problem with him a school. Dem never send call mi bout him say him a misbehave or whatever,” she said.

This would have been his first dispute of this nature, his mother has claimed.

The 16-year-old still has aspirations of becoming a soldier like his 22-year-old brother, who has reportedly urged him to conduct himself with decorum.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com