See students’ response

THE MONA Law Society (MLS) at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, has admitted that it was not fully aware of the true extent of the negative implications that the posting of photographs with law students dressed in clothing representative of dancehall culture would have had on the contestants and the wider law fraternity.

In a letter posted yesterday on its Twitter page, society president Samantha Grant said, “The essence of the photo shoot displayed contestants in three different personas: professional legal attire, a personality photo and their interpretation of the theme as we sought to pay homage to reggae and dancehall in Reggae Month. The pictures depicted several male and female contestants who would have posed and used props to aid in characterising the theme.”

This was done as a part of the society’s Mr and Miss Law 2019 competition, which is being held under the theme ‘Jamaican Rewind: from a taller time’.

The MLS came under fire from attorney-at-law Peter Champagnie, who took issue with the photographs posted on the society’s Instagram page, describing them as “vulgar, disgraceful, and reprehensible”. He subsequently withdrew his participation in the Legal Expo slated for later today.

“The persons damaged through this situation are the young ladies. We urge persons to stop sharing and reposting the photos that were redacted from our social media. We also ask that persons who continue to bully the young ladies put an end to it,” Grant said in the letter.

She added, “In light of this issue and its negative implications, it is our hope that we can use this as a learning experience. This learning experience will not only shape how the society manages social media pages from this point forward, but it will be a pivotal opportunity for us as a society to drive the call from policy changes in the Faculty [of law].”