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Springer Memorial School Wrapper Update: The Education System Enters Its Darkest Hour

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Pauline Benjamin - Principal, Springer Memorial Secondary School
Pauline Benjamin – Principal, Springer Memorial Secondary School

BU will not write too much about this except to beg for urgent divine intervention. As adults we are morally and legally bound to be caretakers of our children. What has transpired so far at Springer Memorial School involving a minor and a student is an indictment on all of us. All of us.

The emotional scaring that continues to accrue to this child begs for an immediate intervention from someone, any bloody one. Are we a society? Are we focussed only on the economy? What say you Prime Minister Fruendel Stuart? You boasted how you had to intervene to resolve the Alexandra issue. Do something! Rescue your minister Ronald Jones, AGAIN.  We await the management style you will select to resolve this issue. You are the prime minister you know.

Police respond to incident involving Springer student

Added 08 February 2016

elecia-weekes-and-daughter

Elecia Weekes (centre) embracing her daughter outside the school gates. At left is Shelly Ross. (Picture by Xtra Vision Photography.)

POLICE WERE CALLED in at the Springer Memorial Secondary School this morning when the saga surrounding the 14-year-old schoolgirl took another turn.

Related articles

The child and her mother, Elecia Weekes, have been involved in a disciplinary row with the principal, which has resulted in her being out of the classroom for almost eight weeks.

Weekes called the police after she said her daughter was escorted to the gates by principal Pauline Bellamy and asked to take off her uniform. She has refused a transfer to Ellerslie Secondary and was told by Bellamy last week that the child is no longer on the roll at Springer and would be trespassing if she returned.

Police from District “A” responded and advised the family, which is being supported by children’s rights advocate Shelly Ross, to take the matter to the Ministry of Education. They are now awaiting word on when they will be able to meet with chief education officer Karen Best. (YB)

– See more at: http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/77607/police-respond-incident-involving-springer-student#sthash.L1FwfmNO.dpuf

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547 responses to “Springer Memorial School Wrapper Update: The Education System Enters Its Darkest Hour”

  1. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    LOL, Gabriel………..or skewdents?……

  2. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @Gabriel,

    I call myself a Bajan with Canadian citizenship.
    Just can’t give up de cou cou wid steam dolphin. lol

  3. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    The student should be back at Springer campus pronto.End of story.Meanwhile we have asses like Lowe spewing pure lies on DLPTV tonite.I wish he would just disappear
    with the garbage and taken to the landfill.JA.

  4. ac Avatar
    ac

    i amm thinking ..i amm thinking that the child would be back in school if her mother did not place so many barriers in the way/

  5. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    Hants
    I know an Englishwoman who lived in Barbados for over 25 years,returns with regularity and must have her coucou and flying fish with the sauce swimming in the plate and at the end of the eating she lifts the plate to her mouth and drink the sauce like an out and out bajan.She says she watched the helper do it and would join her at the kitchen table regularly to sup together.

  6. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ Gabriel,

    Cou cou and flying fish ( or dolphin ) is addictive. lol

  7. curious Avatar
    curious

    All of the normal BLP supporters are labouring on this issue because they see it as a Minister failure to act. He did act and the student was transferred on January 27 maybe after receiving a full report from the Principal to Ellerslie. That is three weeks into the school term. It cannot be the school fault she is not in Springer school because she was transferred to Ellerlie two weeks ago. If she was given the step up she wanted which was St. Michaels this issue would have died a natural death. David would not have to say she did not sign a transfer letter.
    All evidence points to a mother who bullies her child to never obey authority.This mother protests about all things that are rules and regulations eg uniform length

    The politics is so cruel here that some BLP operative even called the Principal one of Jones lackeys who was placed there by him.
    The Principal from all records became the Principal under Rudolph Greenidge in 2005, so that lie has been dismissed.
    Lie #2 by parent that the child was asked to go into auditorium and pick up garbage after children.

    Mr.Caswell said that the principal morphed into a monster. Well lets test that by doing a poll of over one thousand children at Springer to see if she is this monster.

  8. flyonthewall Avatar
    flyonthewall

    “Somebody has got to compensate me for what is going on with my child.”

    Should we interpret this literally, or was it an unfortunate choice of word?

  9. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    I heard a report about a child, with relatively large breast, who had worn to school a bright coloured brassiere and the principal forced her to take it off. That poor child spent the day being the butt of jokes of mean teachers and other students.

    Guess which school.

    Sent from my iPad

    >

  10. Heather Avatar
    Heather

    Bernie Sanders just stated at the New Hampshire Primary that he wants a political revolution in the US. My thoughts are not out of sync to have proposed the same for Barbados in the ‘People’s Manifesto of Barbados. ‘

  11. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @david
    the irony did not escape me.
    Personally I felt the sadness more. So many adults, supposedly educated and mature, and it comes down to this.

  12. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    Trump 34% Sanders 46% is this the match up come November?
    God help us….or god help the usa

  13. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @Hants
    following up on your No Comment, are you not in the GTA in general?

  14. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ NorthernObserver or NO for short ( as a true Bajan would say )

    Yes I live in the GTA.

  15. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Artaxerxes February 9, 2016 at 2:55 PM “The same ones who, for political reasons, are pillorying the student were seen on BU condoning and defending politicians pulling guns in the precincts of parliament, referring to women as “bald pooch cats,” or they could “run down Broad Street naked,” a PM basically calling union leaders “terrorists,” or calling a thief is his “non-leper friend,” and exposing information from a woman’s personal file because she asked about her severance payment.

    Take note that I am not now, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be a member of any political party anywhere. So I have no political reasons.

    I don’t condone politicians pulling guns in Parliament. I don’t condone anybody pulling a gun on anybody else.

    I think that it is vulgar to call anybody a bald pooch cat, and it is equally vulgar to suggest that anybody run down Broad Street naked, I do not condone that behaviour.

    I don’t share the view that trade union leaders are terrorists.

    I don’t believe that anybody should keep a thief for a friend.

    HR information ought not to be brought into the public domain.

  16. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @millertheanunnaki February 9, 2016 at 4:32 PM

    I don’t think that anybody can against children being raised in the loving household of their two biological parents. Alas this family form is all too rare.

  17. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Gabriel February 9, 2016 at 5:25 PM “Simple Simon unmasked and gone….maybe will rise again as GP”

    Not unmasked.

    Not gone.

    Still not GP.

    I took a break to attend to family and community affairs.

    I have a life outside of this blog you know.

  18. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    Hants February 9, 2016 at 7:46 PM #
    ”WHO USUALLY PICKS UP GARBAGE AFTER THE CHILDREN HAVE HAD LUNCH ?

    Is it “normal” for teachers to tell students to pick up wrappers?
    …………………………………………………………………………………………………..
    I knew of an incident when Ronald Jones , just an ordinary teacher at Water Street Boys school asked a mother, who took her child to that school one morning, to pick up a piece of paper lying on the ground.

  19. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @David February 9, 2016 at 7:58 PM “The authorities at the school and ministry got it wrong. Think about it, a 14 year old out of school for 8 weeks. Think about it.”

    I know of a case quite similar to this. The mother for reasons best know to herself did not permit her child to attend elementary school regularly. The child was shipped back and forth between various relatives in various countries all during the elementary school years. At 11+ time the grade received was not unexpectedly less than 20%. The mother insisted that her child be admitted to Queen’s College because that was the school closest to home. The child was not admitted. The child remained out of school for a prolonged period because the mother was adamant that it had to be Queen’s College. The child then attended various less than ideal private schools even while being sent from country to country, from relative to relative.

    The thing is the mother is a fairly well educated woman.

    The young person is now a virtually illiterate adult.

    I guess the mother won.

    Poor child. Unfortunately the father died when the child was an infant and was therefore unavailable to talk some sense into the mother’s head.

    That is why I call on this father to intervene in the best interest of his child.

    it is the least a good father can do,

    HIS CHILD’S EDUCATION IS HIS BUSINESS.

  20. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Same thing happened to a Harrison College boy. Sent from country to country to stay with which ever relative would have him for a few weeks at a time.

    He made the back page of the Nation newspaper before his 21st birthday.

    Parents ought not to do anything that leads to the interruption of their child’s education.

  21. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    millertheanunnaki February 9, 2016 at 4:32 PM “How come we are not hearing you and your ilk demanding that the Law be adhered when it comes to capital punishment?”

    You won’t hear me lobbying for murderers to be executed, simply because i do not believe in capital punishment.

    I believe that Barbados should abolish capital punishment.

  22. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @flyonthewall February 9, 2016 at 9:42 PM ““Somebody has got to compensate me for what is going on with my child.” Should we interpret this literally, or was it an unfortunate choice of word?”

    I hope that someone will gently explain to the mother that even if compensation is paid “for what is going on with her child” that the compensation will belong to the child [and not to the mother] and that the compensation would best be place in trust for the child until she reaches her majority.

  23. C Wally Cyrus Avatar
    C Wally Cyrus

    My heart bleeds for the student, (centre of the controversy) at Springer Memorial School, her mother, the Teacher and the Principal. Why? Very simple! Here are very classic examples of immaturity, absence of leadership and the crisis facing our Education System.
    For too long in Barbados persons over 21 years of age have failed to accept the responsibilities that come with being an adult. Our Politicians, Leaders, Parents and Teachers, continue to seek to be POPULAR, by seeking please everyone. The resultant, instead of befriending our Constituents, our Subordinates, our Children and our Students, we continue to seek to be their friends – one of the boys, one of the girls. That has NEVER WORKED and IT WILL NEVER WORK. Our Constituents, our Subordinates, our Children and our Students REQUIRE and NEED LEADERSHIP and GUIDANCE, while requiring that we BEFRIEND and RESPECT them. When adults behave as adults, children will behave as children.
    As we prepare to celebrate fifty years of Independence, it is very sad to see the progressive absence of LEADERSHIP in ALL AREAS of Barbados life, and it began in the home, with the absence of fathers, working its way to the top of Political and Corporate Barbados. “A Country, a Family, a Football team or any Organization Succeeds or Fails on its Leadership or the Absence thereof.” Dr John Maxwell.
    Finally, the CRISIS in our Education System – OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM CONTINUES TO FAIL TO EDUCATE OR CONTRIBUTE TO THE EDUCATION OF OUR PEOPLE – Children and Adults Alike.
    I do not subscribe to the blame game mentality, as EVERY MAN, WOMAN and CHILD is personally responsible for his or her education. However, our schools, colleges and universities are entrusted with the solemn and sacred responsibility of TEACHING and CONTRIBUTING TO THE EDUCATION OF OUR PEOPLE.
    The Education Process is not a part of our life, nor is it the accumulation of information or titles. Education is a LIFE LONG PROCESS – BEGINNING AT CONCEPTION AND ENDING AT DEATH. Ellen G White, in her book ‘Education’, describes Education as follows: “Our ideas of education take too narrow and too low a range. There is need of a broader scope, a higher aim. True education means more than the pursuit of a certain course of study. It means more than a preparation for the life that now is. It has to do with the whole being, and with the whole period of existence possible to man. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come.
    The source of such an education is brought to view in these words of Holy Writ, pointing to the Infinite One: In Him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom.” Colossians 2:3. “He hath counsel and understanding.” Job 12:13.
    What role has and does the the UWI – Cave Hill, Barbados, play in influencing the quality of education and life in Barbados and the region? I have good reason to believe that our teachers may not be properly prepared for the job they are being asked to perform.
    “Great Teachers do not just teach, they inspire and they create an environment that is conducive to and facilitates the learning and education processes. They create an insatiable appetite for learning and education and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and intellectual growth. Then they empower the student to pursue a lifetime of life long learning. We need to assist our teachers and children to have a more fulfilling, meaningful and productive experience, one they will both enjoy and remember for the rest of their lives.” I had such an experience and continue to enjoy a lifetime relationship with many of my teachers, tutors and professors.

  24. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Italian Marxist theoretician and politician Antonio Gramsci, who had been jailed by the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini, wrote in one of his many prison notebooks: “Common sense is a chaotic aggregate of disparate conceptions, and one can find there anything that one like[s].”

    It would seem that Gramsci was looking into the future and seeing Springer Memorial School. Except, it would seem, common sense has taken a long holiday in the ongoing “wrapper controversy”.

    It has been eight weeks since a 14-year-old student has been barred from attending classes at the Government Hill learning institution. Her sole transgression was her refusal to pick up a wrapper when ordered to by a teacher, making it clear that her mother had not sent her to school to pick up garbage.

    We do not know what sort of attitude the teenager adopted in her response, but let us for a moment imagine the worst-case scenario and say that she was rude. But hasn’t she been punished enough?

    How did such a simple issue escalate into such an ugly tragedy? Why can’t intelligent adults put aside their intransigence, settle the matter and have the child back in class?

    After all, while the school and the mother stand their ground and the Ministry of Education seems impotent, a 14-year-old is being deprived of her right to an education.

    Amid the chaos and disparate notions, common sense is lost after all, and all sides are finding anything they like from the situation, which has degenerated into a circus without a ringleader.

    We are not attempting to point fingers, but reason must prevail. Having suspended the child for a week, it was unreasonable for the school to demand that she must pick up litter for which she was not responsible, before being allowed back. The child was punished. Get on with it!

    Schools are about learning, not irrational punishment; and teaching must be Springer’s primary concern.

    What lessons was the school teaching the children in its care? Was Springer telegraphing to the students that it did not matter whether or not a transgressor served time for wrongdoing, he/she ought not to be forgiven and must face continuous punishment?

    If the school wanted to teach the students a lesson about cleanliness, upon seeing the wrapper, the teacher at the genesis of this cruel charade would have picked it up, deposited in the refuse bin, then proceed to share a lesson or two with the students present about keeping their surroundings clean and pride in their school.

    Would this not have been a much better lesson? And let us not forget that the child being punished was not the one who allegedly left the wrapper on the ground.

    Instead, what we see is a level of intransigence that has resulted in much scratching of heads.

    Parental advisor Shelley Ross has described this attitude as an abuse of power.

    The child’s mother is not without blemish either. She has repeatedly complained that her daughter is suffering, both academically and psychologically. She could have ended this a long time ago by explaining to her daughter that she was right to refuse to pick up the wrapper, but that it would make her no less of a person if she made the point but proceeded to pick it up anyway. Instead, she will not give an inch.

    Sadly, the Ministry of Education allowed this situation to get out of hand.
    Just last week, Minister of Education Ronald Jones called for cooler heads to prevail. Mr Jones and his team at the ministry had a responsibility to resolve this matter in an amicable manner.

    The arbitrary attempts to transfer the child, first to Daryll Jordan Secondary School and later, to Ellerslie Secondary School, has left much to be desired.
    The child’s mother has asked for meetings with the ministry. That she has yet to be heard is unfortunate and shameful.

    She has asked for a say in where her daughter will be transferred to, but has apparently been told by the lack of a response to get lost. Clearly, neither the school nor the ministry heard the minister’s plea, and Mr Jones neglected to take his own advice.

    In Gramsci’s Prison Notebook, he also wrote: “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”

    In this crisis, the morbid symptoms have appeared in the muscle flexing by the school, the demonstration of power by the ministry and the lack of tack displayed by the mother. They all may feel better. However, a 14-year-old is tonight in limbo, left without a school and deprived of an education.

    It would be a terrible shame if by their action they hinder the birth of something new for this child.

    It is high time that all involved put aside their grossly, overinflated egos and agree that enough is enough. It is high time the child is returned to school and has some normality restored to her life.

  25. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Diseased minds being displayed by adults, civil servants whom the taxpayers have to pay a monthly salary……..sociopathic tendencies by those responsible for shaping the future of children….frightening.

  26. ac Avatar
    ac

    the mother instead of hollering about not having documents for the child transfer ought to be hollering Thank God my child is back in school. the mother has no respect for law and order a similar action which she has taught to her children

  27. Sunshine Sunny Shine Avatar
    Sunshine Sunny Shine

    Take a close look at the most controversial persons in the Democratic Labour Party and then look at the behaviour of this mother. There is a distinct pattern that can hardly go unnoticed. It’s called ignorant and bombastic. Now we know why Barbados is in shite street and why tensions are running high in Barbados.

  28. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    SSS
    For ease of reference the list might include:
    Jones,Estwick,Sinckler,MLashley,Kellman,Lowe,Sandiford-Garner,Ince and Carrington.
    For those caught misleading the public add to the above:
    Stuart,Brathwaite,Sealy,Inniss,Blackett,2Boyces,Husbands,SLashley.
    E&OE

  29. G 1 Avatar
    G 1

    the principal has no respect for law and order – she is the one who broke the rules as it relates to suspending students – that is the problem here. if the child is so much of a problem use the rules that lead to expulsion. what this means is that once you have to defend your child or question a decision someone makes you will smell hell for it. THAT IS THE PROBLEM, BULLIES IN HIGH PLACES TAKING THEIR SHIT OUT ON PEOPLE. ac is too ignorant or childless so wouldn’t understand how a mother feels

  30. Artaxerxes Avatar
    Artaxerxes

    Simple Simon February 9, 2016 at 11:29 PM #

    “Take note that I am not now, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be a member of any political party anywhere. So I have no political reasons.”

    @ Simple Simon

    I never implied it was you I was referring to. The “resident DLP political yard-fowl” knows it’s them I mean.

    curious February 9, 2016 at 8:49 PM #

    Are you trying to suggest that those contributors who write in favour of Ms Weekes are BLP supporters? If that’s the case then they could also suggest that by your response, you have to be a DLP supporter. YOU ARE BEING RIDICULOUS.

  31. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    The mother is well within her rights to do what she is doing., the ministry officials refused to speak with her…all the sociopathic adults involved in this violation of a minor’s rights should be in prison, starting with Jones etc, they can also take their idiot yardfowls and some equally sociopathic commenters on here who would dehumanize a little girl, depriving her of her rights , with them…..none of them should be working with children…..the mother should take this matter all the way to human rights tribunals and show up how adults think it’s right to violate children’s basic rights on the island and let all the other such cases come to light for international consumption.

  32. islandgal Avatar
    islandgal

    G 1 February 10, 2016 at 9:31 AM #

    “the principal has no respect for law and order – she is the one who broke the rules as it relates to suspending students – that is the problem here.”

    Can you tell us what the law is?? And can you tell us who is in charge of the school??? Can you also tell us what is the role of the teacher ??

  33. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    You cannot transfer a pupil without consultation with the parents/guardian. Stop blaming the mother for the stupidity of those at the Ministry of Education.

  34. Watching Avatar
    Watching

    Caswell Franklyn February 9, 2016 at 9:51 PM #
    ‘I heard a report about a child, with relatively large breast, who had worn to school a bright coloured brassiere and the principal forced her to take it off. That poor child spent the day being the butt of jokes of mean teachers and other students.
    Guess which school’
    If what Caswell is stating in his above post is correct and I have no reason to believe that it is not true; this abuse of power by this principal needs to be address post haste. Imagine if the principal were a male we would not have glossed over this comment since we would all have seen the implications of it – sexual abuse.
    This incident that Caswell cited starts to explain why there so many alleged cases of sexual abuse of our children in the schools as stated elsewhere on the internet. It also solidifies my position why children should question persons in authority and not just carry-out instructions as if they are sheep. For if the panty lines are showing she might ask them to step out of them.
    I have also been reliably informed that a young lady who had particularly long jet-black hair went to school with her tresses in a plait down her back and the principal proceeded to pull out and open the child’s hair stating that she is not allowed to wear a weave. After causing the child so much pain and stress she found out that it was the child’s god-given hair. The mother had to address the matter with the principal; however another senior teacher, who had since left the school for higher calling, was the one who mediated otherwise if might have been another saga.

  35. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin

    Well its reported in today’s edition of Barbados Today that the mother now wants her daughter to remain at Springer and do not want a transfer anymore. She says that transferring her daughter to another school will mean extra costs for her which she cannot afford.

    She called for transfer of her daughter to Foundation or St. Micheal’s. Now it seems that she really dont want the transfers at all. Smh. The 10 percent of sympathy I had for the mother has whittled down to zero.

  36. ac Avatar
    ac

    After requesting a transfer the mother says that a transfer would be costly. Border line psychotic. Total madness .Why did mom not take all those financial problems into consideration before raving at the mouth and helping the fiasco to become what now seems like a three ring circus

  37. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ islandgal February 10, 2016 at 11:33 AM
    “Can you tell us what the law is?? And can you tell us who is in charge of the school??? Can you also tell us what is the role of the teacher?”

    The Education Act does not give authority to the principal to make a child perform the tasks of the janitor unless the child is clearly responsible for the deliberate littering of the premises.
    Punishing a schoolchild by making her pick up litter and other mess against her will is not allowed as an appropriate form of discipline the principal is authorized to exercise.

    Would you support the principal if it were a case of the child suspected of carrying a real “wrapper” of herb and being asked to take off her clothes including her undies in front of her class mates and the child refuses point blank? After all, it’s just an instruction from someone in authority.

    BTW, the Education Act is superseded by the UN Charter on the rights of the child.

    Article 41
    Nothing in the present Convention shall affect any provisions which are more conducive to the realization of the rights of the child and which may be contained in:
    (a) The law of a State Party; or
    (b) International law in force for that State.

  38. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    These instances of abuse of power continues when everyone just goes along to get along,regardless if it’s abuse of human rights, abuse of children and their rights, corruption, bribery, criminal acts against taxpayers, etc.

    You do not just go along to get along. This is the end result.

  39. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    The mother has said that she is unemployed. Maybe she has too much time on her hands and so spends too much time engaging with her teen child. Ideally the teen years is the time when the child in preparation for adulthood begins disengaging from the parent

    Maybe one of the many Bajans who support the mother’s viewpoint can offer her a job. It will keep her busy. It will permit her to earn income to support her family,

    I am sure as well that she would make an ideal employee.

    I see her doing especially well in customer service, or as a caregiver for your elderly disabled parents.

    Come on people. Hire the woman.

  40. de Ingrunt Word Avatar
    de Ingrunt Word

    Wow, this ting generate white-hot debate. Incredible that an entire nation could be engrossed in a tid-bit wrapper of paper and the shocking inability to resolve a minor conflict.

    How can a principle so proudly shepherd a school to outstanding feats of achievement in sports particularly where discipline, dedication, focus, thinking ahead and preparation are vitally important and yet not be embarrassed and professionally scarred in not resolving such an incident where non of those attributes are evident?

    This is the ridiculousness that permeates every fibre of Bajan life today. Leaders are RIGHT regardless of circumstance.

    Mr Bushie and Mr GP, you are right that a principal, like a general must have strong discipline to maintain order and indeed develop proper ‘esprit de corps’ but do tell both of you which good leader is so stupid to engage in a matter like this…that is, wade into a such a trivial management affair and allow it to escalate beyond control.

    Sun Tzu is as good a quote as any others: “The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.” WHO IS GETTING DESTROYED HERE BY THIS POOR MANAGEMENT DECISION MAKING!!!!

    Or maybe this fits better: “The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.”

    THE CHILD ACTED AS CHILDREN DO…WHY DID THE ADULT LEADERS NOT ACT WITH REASON AND CALCULATE …maybe the child has chronic disciplinary problems but that ought to be handled in private….and not in this garish public gleam.

    This is a poor form of leadership in an institution were one heralded the outstanding achievements and the focus of its leadership team. What exactly is going on here now then; this makes no sense whatever????

    Why such petty, irrational behavior by the school and Dept of Ed officials. They are responsible to ‘manage’ both child and parent not the other way ’round.

  41. Watching Avatar
    Watching

    One teacher that works at the school has stated the child is extremely well- behaved.

  42. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    The child is old enough to defy her parent(s).

    I advise the child to ACT IN HER OWN BEST INTERESTS.

    DEFY HER PARENT(S)

    She should get dressed in whatever school uniform she has and show up at Ellerslie School tomorrow morning. At every school in Barbados the guidance counsellors routinely act to ensure that needy children have the correct uniform, and i am sure that if the lack of Ellerslie school uniforms is the reason the child is out of school, that Ellerslie School will act quickly to ensure that she has new or gently used Ellerslie School uniforms by Monday morning.

    What or who is stopping the child from going to Ellerslie?

    Is it possible, even likely, that the child is afraid of her own mother?

  43. Sunshine Sunny Shine Avatar
    Sunshine Sunny Shine

    WWC

    Girl, like to read what you write, but this one about the mother within her rights is really not right. Yup, she got the right to execute her right, but it does not give her the right to do shite. Look at what the outcome is? She is drawing more attention to herself and her family situation then she should. The water is already under the bridge concerning the arguments for and against. One should know when it is time to exercise your rights and this mother certainly chose the wrong time and the wrong situation to do so. Ya know the saying, silly is as silly does.

  44. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @de Ingrunt Word February 10, 2016 at 12:31 PM “How can a principle so proudly shepherd a school to outstanding feats of achievement in sports particularly where discipline, dedication, focus, thinking ahead and preparation are vitally important.

    Because she is a great principal.

  45. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @de Ingrunt Word February 10, 2016 at 12:31 PM “maybe the child has chronic disciplinary problems but that ought to be handled in private….and not in this garish public gleam.”

    The mother brought this into the public domain.

    Bad decision.

    There is very good reason where matters involving children are handled in private family courts.

    Very likely this is not the mother’s only bad decision.

    Perhaps the mother frequently makes bad decisions?

  46. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Simple Simon February 10, 2016 at 12:29 PM
    “Maybe one of the many Bajans who support the mother’s viewpoint can offer her a job. It will keep her busy. It will permit her to earn income to support her family,
    I am sure as well that she would make an ideal employee.
    I see her doing especially well in customer service, or as a caregiver for your elderly disabled parents.”

    Why not exercise further your social superiority complex and suggest the mother be appointed to the Senate and given the portfolio of Minister for the Environment instead of the current ineffective nasty uncouth blackmouth creature?

    Better yet why not suggest she runs for a seat in the Lower chamber to replace Maria.
    She, having the right qualifications and skills set, would make an excellent Deputy Speaker or even Speaker? Or would she have to become a bald pooch cat for the position?
    What’s sayest thou Simple Superior?
    Get off your bleeding social high-horse and support the protection of the child’s rights as provided by the Law.

  47. de Ingrunt Word Avatar
    de Ingrunt Word

    @Watching, I too was discombobulated by the statement Caswell made. At every level of thinking I said to myself, is this the same Barbados and school system that the GPs and Bushie and Gabriel and others (myself included) rhapsodize about? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

    Obviously too…none of the current school leaders went to school at any of those ‘old style’ schools either. That’s the funny thing about all our new ‘fancy learning’ with awesome educational metrics: simple commonsense is thrown out.

    I have difficulty believing that the comment “the principal forced her to take it off” means that the girl was at school WITHOUT a bra. Because being at Principal where girls attend surely you either send home the child to dress properly or you have some inexpensive standard bras (new of course) on hand for just these situations.

    Similarly, there is absolutely no way that the comment “that poor child spent the day being the butt of jokes of mean teachers and other students” could be describing that she had her ‘relatively large’ breasts basically “exposed” under her blouse. Nope!

    Because that would mean that the school officials created an environment where the child could have been sexually harassed and victimized and where she was exposed to being photographed in a sexually suggestive, indecent way.

    Thus that would mean that they could be liable under the law for ‘corruption of a minor’ or whatever law is applicable under the Bajan jurisprudence.

    So as a proud Bajan I am confident that none of the learned and profoundly trained educational leaders would subject a minor to that. No way.

    Keep them out of school for 8 weeks to show who is boss maybe, but not attack their femininity in such a crass way. Surely not.

    Mr. Franklyn could you please clarify your comments above.

  48. are-we-there-yet Avatar
    are-we-there-yet

    DIW

    Perhaps if you looked closely you might find many other inconsistencies in the stories we are being fed with as gospel. Perhaps we need to hear the other side to some of the tall tales before rushing to judgement?

  49. ac Avatar
    ac

    Nuff respect to the principle for not allowing rudeness and disrespect to become rule of law in her school.

  50. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    Maybe it’s time to rethink the custom of thinking every qualified teacher would make a successful principal.Further,all principals should come to the interview with a CV including Management Studies.We should be expending funds in bringing new ideas and training programmes from the many well organized school systems in Asia and perhaps Canada.I say Asia because the Pakis,Indians,Koreans and Japs repeatedly outperform the Uk and the US school children in most competitions.

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