Principals as petty gods

THE EDITOR, Sir: CHILDREN HAVE rights. The Government of Jamaica agreed with this revolutionary statement 26 years ago when it ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It decided that it was going to take the statement more seriously when it enacted the Child Care and Protection Act in 2004. Since children have rights, child students have rights.

What does this mean? This means that parents, teachers, principals, guidance counsellors, school administrators, family members and church leaders cannot continue this practice of treating children however they feel like.

This means that when we see children being oppressed, those of us who care about children will speak up confidently and defiantly.

I feel the need to echo these statements because of the continuous denial of student rights by the petty tyrants (read: some school administrators) and the way they handle their kingdoms (read: schools - oftentimes publicly funded ones).

When they aren’t failing to effectively teach health and family life education (because it’s icky) or forcibly removing the black hair off of the heads of black students in a predominantly black society, they are denying them an entire week of teaching because they had the gall to talk about sex on social media.

Nowhere in the Education Regulations are principals empowered to suspend students because the school’s “good name” has been brought into disrepute.

School administrators continue to prioritise the school’s reputation over the needs of students. School admins are more interested in demonstrating how strict they are and how prepared they are to rein in children like cattle than actually addressing the errant ways of youth. GLENROY MURRAY glenroy.am.murray@gmail.com