LANCELOT Clarke, one of the seven young men killed by the police at Braeton, St Catherine, in March last year, had been expelled from Jamaica College and the Greater Portmore High School, the coroner’s inquest into the killings, heard yesterday.

Evidence of the expulsions given by Egbert Myers, principal of Greater Portmore High School, at the inquest yesterday afternoon, countered statements made by Katherine Phipps, the attorney for Clarke’s estate at the morning session. Phipps said that the deceased had experienced no disciplinary problems at either of the high schools he attended.

Myers who has been teaching for 21 years and who, before being appointed principal at the Portmore High School, at one time headed the physics department at Jamaica College, admitted to knowing Lancelot Clarke while he taught at JC.

On Wednesday Myers also gave the inquest character evidence about Reagon Beckford, 15, another of the seven killed, who had also been a student at Greater Portmore High School.

On the resumption after the lunch break yesterday, Myers told the inquest that he was told by a school representative over the telephone, that Clarke was expelled from JC in 1995 at the end of the third form. The Greater Portmore High School opened in September 1995 and Clarke, who enrolled there in Grade 9, was expelled in 1997, in Grade 10, after repeating Grade 9.

He said that a letter was on the file from JC signed by the then principal, Lloyd Bryan, explaining why he was expelled. The reasons included: failure to attend classes and school regularly; violation of school rules, open disrespect to teachers; inability to work together in community with other students and deterioration in his demeanour.

The Greater Portmore High School principal also told the inquest that Clarke was suspended for two days from the high school for using expletives. On Clarke’s return to school after the suspension, his mother wrote a letter thanking the school for readmitting him. She also promised to make better arrangements for his supervision as she was not living with him, he told the inquest.

At the morning hearing of the inquest, Katherine Phipps, the attorney representing the estate of Clarke, cross examined Myers. She asked him if he was aware that Clarke had passed the Common Entrance for JC and that he was transferred to the Portmore High School not because of any disciplinary problems, but since it was nearer to his residence.

“Yes it is while I was at Greater Portmore High that I knew he (was) transferred,” Myers replied.

Phipps also asked Myers if he was aware that a United States college which Clarke wanted to attend had requested a transcript from Greater Portmore High.

Myers who said that he was aware of the request from the US college for the transcript said that it was made somewhere between January 2000 and August 2000.

Phipps intimated that Clark had graduated from the Portmore school in 1998, but Myers indicated that he could not confirm the time of graduation but would have to check the school’s records.

Phipps also asked whether the principal had been aware of requests for transcripts for Clarke from the Institute of Practical and Academic Studies at 27 Young Street in Spanish Town and a HEART/NTA Academy.

Myers who said that he became principal of the high school in January 1999, by which time Clarke had already left the school, said that his knowledge of requests for those transcripts would depend on when the requests had been made.

Oswest Senior Smith, representing the police who also cross examined Myers before the lunch break, asked him whether a request for a transcript for an applicant meant that the applicant would be admitted to the school.

The principal said that it did not.

The coroner conducting the inquest since January 14 is Lorna Errar-Gayle.

Patrick Green, an uncle of Curtis Smith, one of the seven deceased, who gave evidence at the inquest on Monday, was also cross examined yesterday.