Minister of Education and Technical and Vocational Training, the Hon. Glenys Hanna Martin was asked for comment on claims of abuse made by a parent on the island of Bimini. The parent was concerned about bruises on her ten year old son after a police officer was called to the school to discipline a group of students.
Hanna Martin told reporters, “I consider it beyond most unfortunate and its something that we truly regret has happened in our schools and in particular in a primary school. And so we’re hoping that out of this the message will go out and its clear that if you seek to execute any form of corporal punishment it is done in strict compliance. And that strict compliance only allows senior administrators to administer and I think it also says the manner in which, so the way in which its reported that happened in that school is completely outside of what was authorized.”
The minister further stated, “when a parent sends a child to the school, the parent has an expectation that if that is to occur that it is occurred within strict adherence to that manual. I think that time has come that we must discuss this issue of corporal punishment even in that way in our schools. But that’s a conversation that is later than this one, this is an incident that has happened and I think the issue here at hand is that the protocols are very clear about how discipline is administered.”
The school’s principal has been placed on administrative leave and the officer that administered the corporal punishment has been transferred.
