Spalding High School to be renamed

TAccording to Paul Lee, chairman of the school board, he fully supports the name change, while stating that the retired principal has given the Clarendon school a facelift.

“Myself and the board absolutely support this name change. Consultation was made with the entire community including the stakeholders and the past students. The era of Mr Davis changed the mindset of the country on a whole as to how they view the secondary schools. As a youngster growing up, if you should pass to go to Spalding Secondary School, it was sort of a shame. Mr Davis, during his tenure, changed that and changed the whole profile of the school,” he said. The school opened its doors in 1973.

QUICKLY CONSENTED

According to Lee, the recommendation for renaming the school in honour of Davis was made by Member of Parliament Richard Azan.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness quickly consented and directed Azan to write to the minister of education to formalise the move.

Lee continued to shower the retired principal with praises.

“The infrastructural development that took place during his tenure would have contributed towards the changing of the minds of persons on how they view the school. He also changed the mindset of teachers and prinicipals of other secondary schools, because for a while, the teachers who taught at secondary schools thought they were not on par with the traditional ones,” Lee said.

“The preservation of the Alpansus Davis School can be very benefical. This story can be told and perhaps in the future, the school can turn this into an economic activity where youngsters can come and tour the school and learn about its history,” he added.

Davis, who also served as senior adviser to Prime Minister Andrew Holness when he was Education Minister, was also named as chairman of the Teachers’ Services Commission (TSC), which resulted in a long and intense stand-off with the Jamaica Teachers’ Association.

This took the intervention of then Prime Minister Bruce Golding which resulted in Davis relinquishing his position as adviser to Holness to clear the way for his appointment as TSC head.

SOME two and a half months after he allegedly chopped his eight-month-old son Roshane McPherson to death, police are yet to locate Mandeville taxi operator Sean McPherson.

In addition to killing his son, McPherson also injured his common-law wife, Racquel Walters, following a domestic dispute at their McKinley Drive address in Manchester.

He reportedly escaped by jumping into a sinkhole in the community of Ramble. However, contacted yesterday, Superintendent Wayne Cameron, head of the Manchester police, said that McPherson did not use the sinkhole as his escape route.

Cameron said that the police have received reports that he was spotted in the Porus area.

“He’s still on the run. One and two times there may have been sightings of him in the Porus police area but we have not been able to put hands on him yet,” Cameron told

“He’s a wanted man, and once we find him, we will arrest him and charge him, for the murder of the child and the wounding of the mother,” Cameron said.

The funeral for the young child took place two Saturdays ago.