Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
THE MINISTRY of Education, Youth and Culture has requested an official report detailing the circumstances surrounding the suspension of three girls from the Immaculate Conception High School. The students allegedly spat into a teacher's water bottle.
The request was sparked by a protest yesterday by livid teachers at the institution who believe that the disciplinary actions were woefully inadequate.
"I have asked the principal to give me the facts on the matter ... (but) I am convinced that this is a matter that the principal can deal with effectively and efficaciously," said Dorrett Campbell, the ministry's director of communications. Despite the ministry's request for the report, Ms. Campbell insisted that the nature of the matter dictated that it be handled internally.
The placard-bearing teachers are contending that the students should have been expelled for conspiring and committing such an act. The teachers explained to The Gleaner that one student distracted the teacher, while another spat in the bottle and the other girl shook up the bottle to disguise the saliva that the teacher eventually drank.
"We automatically assumed that they would have been expelled. It went to the board and they felt that it did not warrant an expulsion," said a teacher from the school who asked not to be identified.
DANGEROUS PRECEDENCE
The teacher insisted that the decision to suspend the students sets a dangerous precedence, which might convince other students that they can get away with anything.
The teachers are also alleging that the girls were not expelled because one is from an "influential family".
However, the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) disassociated itself from yesterday's protest, which coincided with the return of the two of the students who were suspended. Reports reaching The Gleaner are that the third girl voluntarily withdrew from the institution.
"Teachers can't demand that students be expelled. Disciplinary action goes through a process ... we have to respect the decision of the board," said Ruel Reid, president-elect of the JTA.
