The grandmother of a grade nine student at Jonathan Grant High school in St. Catherine, is crying foul after the girl was suspended for five days last Thursday.
The suspension follows the girl’s alleged involvement in the video recording of a fight between two of her classmates.
It’s understood that in addition to the suspension, the dean of discipline at the school confiscated the girl’s mobile phone and then demanded a cash payment from her mother for its return.
We have more in this report from Kimone Thompson.
The story begins with a fight between two Grade nine students, inside a classroom at the Spanish Town-based school.
It’s understood that some students used their mobile phones to record footage of the fight.
It’s also understood that the Dean of Discipline at the school, Devon Garvey, intervened and suspended three students; the two who were fighting and a third who recorded the altercation.
A woman told our news centre that her granddaughter was the third student.
We will not publish her name in order to protect the identity of the child.
The woman says her granddaughter was suspended for five days and had her mobile phone confiscated.
The grandmother says her daughter, the child’s mother, went to the school to retrieve the phone, given that the child was now dependent on the device to receive lessons as she prepares for upcoming end-of-term exams.
She makes the shocking claim that the Dean of Discipline asked for $2,000 in exchange for returning the phone.
Nationwide News contacted the Dean of Discipline and asked him for an interview to respond to the grandmother’s claim.
He told our reporter he was reluctant to speak over the phone and that she should come to the school instead.
But when she turned up there on Tuesday morning, after travelling from St. Andrew, he told her he had changed his mind after being advised by the school’s principal not to speak with the media.
The girl’s mother says she has reported the matter to the Ministry of Education.
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