Tomorrow is the last day of school at Sadie Vernon High School and the school year will end on a bitter note. As we’ve been reporting, Sadie Vernon High School’s Principal Lorna Baptist has been at odds with her teachers for some time. Last month the teachers staged a mass sickout and that’s when the Ministry of Education jumped in and started an investigation. Well now the parents are having their say and they want principal Baptist to stay. At this hour the Parent Teacher’s Association is meeting with District Education Manager E. Jahmor Lopez and the principal. Before the meeting, PTA Vice President Olga Gordon said it’s either a resolution or no school in September.
Olga Gordon, Vice President - PTA
“Parents are not happy with what is going on here. It is an ongoing thing with teachers and I think we have gotten to the point now, we have students here and we have gotten to the point where we want it to be finished. We either squash it or we close down the school. Either squash because personally I am tired. My daughter is in third going in fourth. She has looked up to the principal as a mentor. With the principal going, sometimes I can’t even get her to eat because she says, ‘mommy when I come back to school in September will my principal be here.’ And it is not only her. Whosoever was here, as a parent, I was willing to work with.
I have seen the lot she has done for Sadie Vernon. She brought a lot to this school. There was one time when this school was out there as the tableta school, I don’t know if you heard about it. Continuation was then the tableta school, a school that had no resting place, moving from side to side.
Our meeting this evening then is we want a clear answer, we want the correct answer and if it doesn’t come how we want it, we close down the school. We are parents and I think we have the right to.”
Keith Swift,
And your support is for the principal?
Olga Gordon,
“Yes. Everybody in the room right now is in support of Miss Baptist.”
Again about 50 parents are meeting with District Education Manager E. Jahmor Lopez at this hour. He has told us that no decision about the fate of principal Lorna Baptist and that the investigation into the circumstances that led to the mass sickout is ongoing.
