MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA – Courses at St James Excessive Faculty had been dropped at a halt on Monday following a heated confrontation between Principal Joseph Williams and Faculty Board Chairman Christopher McCurdy, marking the newest escalation in a long-running dispute between the 2.
The college’s Mum or dad-Trainer Affiliation (PTA) despatched out a closure discover to oldsters, stating that it “can’t guarantee a conducive studying setting till these grievances are absolutely addressed.” It stays unclear when regular faculty operations will resume.
Each Williams and McCurdy have offered conflicting accounts of what transpired on campus.
Williams claims McCurdy disrupted a scheduled workers assembly, refused to depart when requested, and later confronted him in an aggressive and threatening method. In response to Williams, the altercation precipitated an uproar amongst college students and workers, resulting in police being known as in.
“We had been having a workers assembly this morning, and he got here and disrupted it… He refused to depart. I needed to name off the assembly, after which he threatened me, pointing in my face in a threatening method. It was fairly upsetting. Even the scholars had been up in arms, saying that he must go,” Williams informed the Jamaica Observer.
McCurdy, nonetheless, has a unique model of occasions. He alleges that Williams was the aggressor, claiming the principal threatened to hit him with a bottle and that some workers members additionally issued threats towards him.
Tensions between the 2 have reportedly been brewing for years, however McCurdy stated issues worsened in February after it was confirmed that he would stay chairman of the college board. He additionally alleged that placards had been positioned on the faculty gate as a part of ongoing opposition to his management.
Following the incident, lecturers initially refused to return to work however resumed their duties later within the day after Williams appealed to them. Second-shift courses ended on the traditional 5:30 p.m.
Nevertheless, it stays unclear when the college will absolutely reopen. The PTA has promised to maintain mother and father up to date, whereas Williams is hopeful that courses will resume at the moment (Tuesday). He emphasised the urgency of resolving the matter, noting that St James Excessive is the one faculty within the parish nonetheless working on a shift system and that college students want enough preparation time for exterior exams.
“We’ve been asking for redress from the Ministry of Training since final yr,” Williams stated. “This faculty has been doing so nicely, and we don’t need that to be thwarted.”
St James Excessive Faculty at the moment serves a scholar inhabitants of greater than 1,700.
