Dear Source:
Ms. Alecia Weekes' comment on the problems with the Eudora Kean High School student who was dismissed from the school was on target to a degree. I wholeheartedly agree with her that the school monitor/ex-police officer should never have been hired by the school given his prior record of irrational and felonious behavior which in any other jurisdiction under the United States' flag would have probably had him in jail way before now.
Notwithstanding, and simply playing Devil's advocate, it seems to me that this young man had and has a very serious problem both in dealing with authority and discipline in general and with his peers. It seems that he was improperly registered with the school, that he consistently failed in adhering to school rules and that many of the staff went out of their way to help him become a part of the school community but to no avail.
The judge's ruling in ordering the school to take him back into the fold of the educational system was, I think and with all due respect, incorrect. Children have rights, of course, but that goes for all children.
The children of the Virgin Islands are in the lowest sector nationwide insofar as scholastic aptitude is graded. Those who do make it through the public school system and thence to college do so because they have parents who care and thus inspire their children to work hard, learn and simply delve into life. These children become proud through knowledge, knowing that they're continuously learning and thus reaching towards a higher goal.
The sad ones who turn to crime and violence are indeed left behind. With no parental mentors to inspire them, they take the wrong turn.
I'm sorry that Ms. Weekes thinks that the school principal's actions were "atrocious," but I have to disagree. Her actions I think were grounded in her desire to provide the majority of her students with a safe and secure learning haven, regardless of their background or particular family circumstance. It would seem that the young man was a problem whose disregard for authority and basic rules severely undermined the very basic tenets dictated by the school code.
Anna Clarke
St. Thomas
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