Mae’s Schools denies discriminating ...
From centre pages years after returning home from abroad. She added that she would not allow her son to stay in such an environment.
In solidarity
After midday yesterday, nearly 40 persons had congregated outside of the school in Subryanville to show support for the young boy.
The Amerindian Peoples Association (APA), the National Toshaos Council, Red Thread and the CARICOM Youth Ambassadors of Guyana were among the organizations represented at the demonstration. Aside from those organizations, also joining the protest line were private citizens, who had gotten wind of the incident through social media, and took to the streets to show their support.
Many of the protestors were of Amerindian ancestry and some donned traditional wear on the protest line. But the demonstration also saw support from persons of other ethnic backgrounds.
Protestors yesterday also condemned the fact that the relevant ministries had been mum on the matter. However, Stabroek News was informed that the matter has engaged the attention of the Ministry of Social Cohesion and was being looked into.
There has also been no official statement from either Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs. However, Junior Minister of Indigenous Peoples Affairs’ Valerie Garrido-Lowe, during an interview on the television programme Indigenous Development in Focus, had opined that the school owed the student an apology, and stated that she saw nothing wrong with his attire.
“…I think that they should have thought about it some more and view it as his culture and invite him in and explain. If the rest of students don’t understand, take it as a teaching moment to explain about indigenous heritage and their clothing…I’m sorry that the little boy had to go through a terrible time because of who he is and I think the school owes him an apology,” Garrido-Lowe said.
The APA, in a statement sent out yesterday, called the school’s actions “disgraceful” and condemned the institution for exposing the young student to “cultural discrimination.” Like many, the organization called for a public apology from the school’s administration, and recommended that steps be taken to prevent a recurrence of a situation.
“The school’s administration last Friday impinged on the right of the student to practice his culture and freely express his identity through its discriminatory actions,” the statement said. “…The Association recommends that cultural sensitization sessions be conducted at the school so that students, teachers and staff understand the cultural traditions and human rights indigenous peoples possess. The Amerindian Peoples Association has capable personnel available to conduct such training and would be willing [to] facilitate such sessions should it be contacted to do so,” the APA advised.
Disrespectful
Meanwhile, a call for the protest had been made via Facebook by journalist Natasha Smith, who is also of Amerindian heritage. Smith yesterday deemed the actions toward the student, as well as the fact that there had been no response to the matter by any of the relevant authorities, “disrespectful.”
“The reason why I chose to go ahead with this protest today is because… this incident happened last Friday and this school did not utter a word to anybody. They did not apologize, they did not say it was a mistake…and that is a sign of disrespect. Growing up, I know that the sooner you make an apology, the better it is for everybody, but it’s been days, and Mae’s has not said anything,” Smith stated.
“I think it’s totally disrespectful to the Indigenous people of Guyana. That child is an example of who we are; he is a representation of the entire race of the First People of Guyana and I don’t think that they have been respectful to him and, therefore, they have not been respectful to this race because he represents our culture,” she added.
She related that the goal of the protest is to prevent a recurrence of last week’s episode, while noting that the actions of the school breached the constitution, and was a clear case of social cohesion not being present in certain aspects of our culture.
“…We’re very upset about that and we don’t want it to continue. If this is a culture at Mae’s, and they cannot teach their children tolerance and respect for other people’s culture, then what are they doing? If you are teaching children halftruths about indigenous culture, well then they will learn half-truths…are their parents paying for their children not to be taught respect? Those are moral values we have to inculcate in our children from a very young age and I totally blame Mae’s and the teachers for that,” Smith said.
The general sentiment shared yesterday was that in a multi-ethnic society such as Guyana’s, each culture should be equally accepted, celebrated and appreciated. Protestors spoke about the possible impacts such discriminatory treatment and humiliation will have on the child in future, and stated that the alleged actions of the school go against the country’s motto of “One People, One Nation, One Destiny” and its aim of social cohesion. They also expressed pride in their cultural heritage.
“I’m here to support my indigenous little brother. The treatment meted out to him on the day is downright disrespectful and unacceptable. We are a beautiful country with six races and we all have our own culture, and we all have to accept the culture of other people…We are proud to be indigenous people, like any other race in this country…,” said Jude Da Silva.
“…It penetrated deep down. As you can see, we are all here, because we are not satisfied with the way that our culture was treated, it was not accepted. And it should not have been...we’re here supporting the fact that we should be recognized just as everyone else,” protestor Collin Andrews, who related that he was on the picket line with his children, shared.
A similar sentiment was shared by Adrian Welcome, who related that he learned about the issue via Facebook and came out to lend his support. Welcome is also of Amerindian heritage.
“We will not stand by and allow ourselves to be socially complicit as this school, Mae’s Schools, castigates our Amerindian brothers and sisters based on petty social constructs. We think that it’s a time that when we’re focusing on national cohesion, we ought to embrace everyone and respect everyone, regardless of what we think and what might have been the previous status quo,” Vishal Joseph, CARICOM Youth Ambassador, stated yesterday.
Red Thread representative Joy Marcus stated that she was there to ensure that what happened last week does not happen to another child.
Meanwhile, Small expressed gratitude at what she described as “countrywide support” shown to her family in the matter.
“…Not only from the indigenous community but from every other civil minded Guyanese that saw that it was not right, it was an injustice on the part and I’m very, very happy that there is still hope because there’s a large fraction of Guyana that said that it was not okay and I really appreciate that…I’d like to thank persons for supporting [him], for letting him know that he did nothing wrong because he thought he did something wrong,” she stated.
Small noted that her son has grown up embracing his culture, and related that while he lived abroad in Europe, the attitude shown toward him was one of acceptance, quite opposite to what he experienced last Friday.
While she believes an apology is forthcoming, Small stated that beyond that, what she is seeking is for acceptance for her son and his culture.
“I envision that [he] will put on back his Indigenous wear, walk the same walk and be accepted how he’s supposed to be accepted in here…goes to the assemblies and they say this is okay, this is acceptable. Because, basically, what you told him [is] it was unacceptable, to the point where other students told him, ‘Well, you’re a stupid Amerindian boy, why didn’t you wear a vest?’ So this is what you’ve created, now you need to fix that. You need to fix that…,” Small stated.