On last night’s newscast, we brought you a disturbing report about eight standard five students from Grace Primary School who were aggressively disciplined by a police constable from the Zone Beat Liaison Officer’s programme. Equally concerning is the allegation that no school representative was present in the computer room when PC Scott spoke to the children and then proceeded to punish them severely. One of the twelve year old boys in the presence of his mother told 7NEWS that PC Scott did more than just talk but had them do physical tasks that if they failed they were whipped with a Nylon rope and threatened to be held down by the policeman’s boot.
According to Giovanna Fuller as a result her son suffered with pains all over the body and he constantly threw up. The following day the child’s parents decided to take him to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where a doctor classified his injury as harm. On Thursday the Commander of Eastern Division Senior Superintendent of Police David Henderson confirmed to 7NEWS that Police Constable Scott has been temporarily removed from the ZBLO pending the outcome of an investigation.
The alleged incident was also investigated by the Belize District Education Centre. Today the manager E. Jahmor Lopez told 7NEWS that he has spoken with the school Principal Myrna Shepherd and seven of the students and he has been able to establish that there were errors made by both police Constable Scott and the school that contributed to what the children experienced. Lopez also told 7NEWS that twelve year old was not at school when he went to grace primary and they will be speaking with the parents too see how the issue can be resolved. Here’s more.
E. Jahmor Lopez, District Manager
“I visited Grace Primary School, I spoke with Principal Miss Myrna Shepherd and I also spoke with 7 of the 8 students who were involved in the incident. I have prepared a report and I have since sent that report to Belmopan and to the Chief and Deputy Chief. They will be reviewing it.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
What has your investigation revealed?
E. Jahmor Lopez,
“Based on my interview with the students, the ZBLO who is PC Scott who met with them was asked to speak with the boys. Apparently there has been an ongoing issue at Grace Primary with some of the boys, specifically these boys who are in standard five. The principal reported that when they were in standard four they had I guess maybe too much energy, they would be fighting, throwing stones etc., and they are now in standard five. They haven’t quite settled down just yet and she has been talking and talking and apparently the ZBLO was visiting and so she asked the ZBLO to have a talk with them and I guess he was supposed to do that but he felt that he needed give them foretaste of what boot camp is like and I think that’s where he erred. I think if the principal had been in there with them maybe it would have come to this.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
Mr. Lopez, you’re investigation has now established that the school principal was not present at the time when PC Scott spoke with the school children. Was there anyone else in the room, any other school representative present when the officer was speaking to these students?
E. Jahmor Lopez,
“Based on my investigation no, it was just PC Scott and the eight students. There was at one point when they were finishing up a teacher came in to do some copies but I think by then whatever it is that PC Scott had in terms of whether it had been a pep talk or a pre-boot camp it was all over. Certainly our position is that you should have a representative from the school whether it be the principal or vice principal or a teacher because we have seen what can happen if you just have an officer. The thing is that ZBLOs should be trained to work with kids. They should be sensitive to the needs of kids because we are dealing with kids, these are not grown ups, they are not criminals and over the years we have seen some ZBLOs who clearly do not have the skills to work with young people. What I have heard about PC Scott is that he has been doing a wonderful job but somewhere he erred in his judgement and went a little bit overboard and the kids are telling me, some of the things that transpired, clearly the damage has been done. They feel that what he did, he shouldn’t have done and then again if we had a rep. from the school it wouldn’t have come to this. We cannot have a situation where every little problem you run to the media and it is broadcast sometimes without getting all the stats, all the facts. It is kind of prejudicial to the entire process when we are investigating.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
But at the same time you have a medical form on which the doctor has characterized it as harm.
E. Jahmor Lopez,
“Well I haven’t seen the report. You’re saying there is a report and I haven’t seen it. That would warrant again further investigation. What I do know is that we would want to solve this problem through dialogue. I will be meeting with the parents to see how we could do some damage control, to see how we could address this. If any transfer does occur hereafter it simply means that we were not able to resolve the issue in an amicable fashion and it would be a decision by the parents to then transfer the students.”
This evening Lopez told us that a meeting was convened between the parents, the school principal and himself and the parents have expressed an interest in keeping their two children enrolled at Grace Primary; they should return to their classrooms on Monday. Lopez also reiterated that every step is being made to ensure that the environment at the school is such that the children will feel comfortable at school.
