SUPPORT AND LASHING FOR THWAITES

The sacking Wednesday of the Prickly Pole Primary School board chair by Education Minister Ronald Thwaites yesterday won support from the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), even as residents in the St Ann community protested the action.

“We wish to remind the minister of education and the National Council on Education of the critical role school boards play in the education system. Therefore, persons so appointed should have the education of the nation’s children as their sole agenda,” the JTA said in a statement.

Thwaites revoked Vinnette Robb-Oddman’s appointment after it emerged that she helped to organise a protest in Claremont last Friday which included students from the school.

That protest was staged, the residents said, to demand an answer from Member of Parliament Lisa Hanna about money that was allegedly allocated for the paving of the schoolyard.

But the protest drew national attention after the death of 11-year-old Prickly Pole Primary student Akella Lewis, who was initially reported as being a part of the protest. However, the child’s mother has denied this.

The child, who had fainted on previous occasions, reportedly fainted on the school grounds and was taken to a doctor in Alexandria, where she died.

Three days after the incident, the Child Development Agency (CDA) reported that its investigation showed that 19 children from the school were transported by buses to participate in the demonstration.

The CDA said that when the buses first arrived at Prickly Pole Primary, school personnel did not allow the children to leave in the first instance.

The buses, the CDA said further, left empty but later returned with parents and relatives of the children and also included Robb-Oddman.

According to the CDA, Akella boarded one of the buses under the supervision of adults, but fell ill and had to be taken off. “She became unresponsive and the school’s principal was alerted. Attempts to revive her were futile,” the CDA said.

“It is alleged that the mother and other relatives of Akella were in one of the buses in the convoy but reportedly offered no assistance and proceeded to Claremont to participate in the protest,” the CDA alleged further.

At a press conference held at the Almond Tree Hotel in Ocho Rios on Tuesday, Robb-Oddman said she did not think Thwaites was being fair in making suggestions that she demit office.

She said no students were expected to be a part of the protest. However, they were taken by their parents.

Robb-Oddman, when questioned about the possibility of being asked to resign, said she was willing to sacrifice the position of board chair to get answers regarding the money which was reportedly allocated to pave the schoolyard.

The contractor general is reported to have opened an investigation into the matter.

Attempts to contact Robb-Oddman following her termination have been unsuccessful.

Yesterday, residents of Prickly Pole and surrounding communities blocked sections of the main road in Claremont to protest against Robb-Oddman’s dismissal.

Only motorcycles and bicycles were able to traverse the route of the roadblock, which started at Four Miles and extended to Eight Miles.

Yesterday as well, Opposition Leader Andrew Holness expressed sympathy to the Akella’s parents, relatives and friends.

He said that the safety and security of our children at school is always foremost in our minds and well-thinking Jamaicans should be disturbed at the recent developments at the school.

“… The integrity of the administration of the school has been compromised by political interests and considerations, and gave rise to circumstances in which a child enrolled at the school lost her life,” he said.

Holness said, however, that the entire affair surrounding Prickly Pole Primary stinks of political corruption and can only serve to prejudice the school as an institution and the wider community.

“Separate and apart from the contractor general’s investigation, the prime minister should recognise the glaring conflict of interests in this matter, restrict her ministers from further actions, and launch an independent investigation into the whole sordid affair,” he said.

“The concern of parents that public funds were approved to repair the school, and an announcement made that the school was repaired, when in fact no repairs have been carried out to date, should not be ignored,” Holness said.

He added: There is a conflict of interest when Lisa Hanna, the member of parliament against whom the protest was launched, is also the minister responsible for the Child Development Agency.

“This agency was tasked by Minister Hanna to confirm that the death of the child was a result of the protest which involved children in attendance at Prickly Pole Primary. It is also curious that the minister of education would act so expeditiously to dismiss a school board chairman, who, based on public utterances, is staunchly opposed to his Cabinet colleague Minister Hanna, without the full administrative process of hearings and independent investigations being followed,” Holness said.