WHILE his 259 classmates participated in the Half-Way-Tree Primary School’s annual school-leaving ceremony, a tearful Lance Shirley wept bitterly outside the school’s gates, because although he had passed his GSAT examinations, teachers at the school told him when he arrived that he could not participate in the programme because “he was too rude”.

Shirley’s mother, Nadia Jones, was similarly distraught, as she claimed that school officials acted dismissively when she questioned why her son would not march with his class.

“I had to create a scandal for them to attend to me,” she told the Observer. “When I asked the principal, she say she have no time for me. Same thing with the vice-principal and the teacher. Is when I start cuss now and say ‘gimmie me money back then’, I see everybody come.”

Jones and several other family members showed up to the 4:30 pm ceremony dressed to the hilt, armed with cameras and gifts for the 12 year-old, who will be attending Charlie Smith Comprehensive High School in September, but when they arrived, they found the young boy sitting to the side without a corsage, despite his mother paying the $1,800 prize-giving and banquet fee, as well as having his named listed as a graduate in the event’s programme. On noticing that her nephew was not with the other children, Shirley’s aunt, Maxine Marshall, began questioning school officials, who delivered only curt responses.

“The acting principal, Ms Johnson, said that she was given instructions by the principal abroad that Lance was not to graduate, but I want to know, why couldn’t they say something to us before… why they just put him aside like him is nobody?” questioned Marshall.

Eventually, school officials caved in to the irate family group, refunded the $1,800 fee and decided to allow the boy to participate, but by then, the embarrassment of the loud melee was too much for Shirley, who left the compound long before the end of the ceremony. His mother, however, refused to accept the school’s reasons for excluding him, and questioned why it was that she or her son were not informed of the decision before his big day.

“I know say him rude,” explained Jones, ” but everytime them send call me, I come, I never yet resist, I come in. I go to PTA meetings, and they know where to find me when him behave bad. So I wonder what is the reason why they couldn’t send a letter or call me to tell me to come to the school to let me know him not graduating,” she questioned.

School officials were tight-lipped about the incident, but one senior teacher at the school indicated that the administration was planning to deal with the issues after today’s ceremony.

“We intend to have a meeting tomorrow to discuss the matter,” senior teacher G Clarke said.

“The matter is settled for the time being. I don’t wish to speak further, but tomorrow we will be able to make a statement,” she added.