Today representatives of the Ministry of Education had to make their way to St Martin's De Pores Roman Catholic School in Blackman Eddie village where a number of parents listed their dissatisfaction with the school's principal. Our team travelled west and Monica Bodden has the story.
Monica Bodden reporting
Parents of Blackman Eddie village gathered outside the village primary school this morning to show their support to one of their very own, who was involved in a meeting with the school pertaining to the suspension of her 10 year old child.
At the meeting were representatives of the Ministry of education, police and the catholic management.
The std 2 student was suspended for 5 days by the school principal Alfred Serrano, after he allegedly kicked a child.
Sheryl Mia - who is the child's mother, told us her son was suspended unfairly, and that he has been targeted by the principal ever since she confronted principal Serrano about a facebook incident.
Like the saying goes - "if you can't catch the cow, you go for the calf"… well Mia says, that was exactly what happened.
Sheryl Mia - Parent
"The Ministry of Education was out here this morning along with PC Medina and the Catholic management, and we had a meeting in there a while ago, and they told me that child can come back to school tomorrow."
The parent accuses principal Serrano of searching for her 10 year old child's father on facebook - a man who lives abroad and is not a part of her child's life. The parent said that principal Serrano did that without her permission and told her afterwards. His excuse was; the child is lacking love.
Sheryl Mia - Parent
"The thing that got to me most of all is that he went on the internet and he told me that he found my child's father on Facebook."
Monica Bodden
"He isn't in your child's life at this time?"
Sheryl Mia - Parent
"He is not in my child's life. My little boy is 10 and he doesn't even know how he looks. So if I am not worrying about him as the mother and he is still in school that means I can take care of my child."
Monica Bodden
"This principal went on Facebook searching for your child's dad?"
Sheryl Mia - Parent
"Yes he did that. He showed me when I came to his office on Facebook. He says to me that this is why my child is behaving like this in school because he is lacking love. He asks if he was the child's father, and I told him yes, and I walked away out of his office because, then, I don't worry about the child's father, I take care of my child."
Monica Bodden
"You think that he crossed the line looking for your child's dad?"
Sheryl Mia - Parent
"Exactly, as a principal he did. I figure that "if you cannot catch the cow, you deal with the calf to get the cow's attention." It's a bad way to say it but then it's true. He has been calling me to school for some simple little things that my child has done. But now we bring in the police and they told me that they will find a way to deal with it because my child has a "stamma" problem and whenever they would tease him he would get mad."
But Mia wasn't the only parent with a problem. They were at least 15 parents with issues - concerning the school's financial report for 2010-2011.
The parents believe that the figures they were given in the report were too high, and when they asked Principal Serrano for an explanation, they got none.
Concerned Parent
"We are out here because we believe that we are not a part of this school. One of the reasons is, I was the president of the PTA and when we came to meeting one day after getting the financial report from the principal, I start to inquire about these things and the principal told me immediately that the PTA is null and void and he dissolved the PTA. Some of the members are over there and they can contest to that. That is a fact."
"We were questioning some of these things that he had [said] and as far as up to now we don't get an answer to it."
Monica Bodden
"So you don't believe that he needed $1,500.00 worth of fuel?"
Concerned Parent
"I do not. I am a graduate of this same school, so I guess if I am kind of dumb then it's because of the school. If you look at this report right here under "utilities" it says $1,524.38. The only utility that they have here is electricity and the most we pay for electricity is $70 per month. When we add it up for the whole year it could never amount to that figure. I want him to explain that to us."
Monica Bodden
"So he doesn't pay for water?"
Concerned Parent
"No water bill. We have the chairman of the water board right here."
Sheryl Mia - Parent
"Woodlice are eating the cafeteria because it is locked up. If a building is locked up woodlice would have their way. The principal doesn't want the kids to eat here."
Monica Bodden
"The school cafeteria is not functioning and there is everything in there. It had a refrigerator, but the principal took the refrigerator and put it in his office."
Monica Bodden
"Why isn't the cafeteria functioning?"
Sheryl Mia - Parent
"I don't know. He doesn't want to give up the keys, so I don't know. He has on his paper $1,500.00 that he is charging us the parents for fuel and the only person that has a car here is the principal."
On the report it stated that the school spent two thousand, two hundred and sixty nine dollars and once cents for maintenance, and one thousand, five dollars for transportation - just to name a few. These parents are demanding a breakdown of how their monies were spent. They say it's unfair to be paying their hard earned money, and their children don't even have doors on their bathroom for their own privacy.
Parent
"As I stand here this morning with this financial report in my hand the principal gave out at a meeting, as I go through this it tells me that something is wrong on this financial report. When I look at all the expenses he has here, I think something is wrong. As we sat in the meeting me and the president from the former PTA we were questioning some of the bills that we have here and there was no definite answer from the principal."
"To me to be honest, we are poor people and we can't have someone coming here ripping off money from us. We know the school needs income so the school can keep on running. But when we look at these bills, I think it's not right on this bill. These are poor people's money. There are parents here that have 3-4 children coming to school."
"The principal has to explain this money. If I look at this financial report, the total income was $11,596.10. After he took out all the expenses he brought it down to $244.50. Something is wrong. And as for maintenance; the yard is bushy right now and the bathrooms needs fixing. There is no transportation here that is doing any running around. Something is wrong."
Principal of the school Albert Seranno refused to comment on the situation that is going on at the school.
