Nadine Molloy, president of the Jamaica Association of Principals for Secondary Schools (JAPSS), is calling on the Ministry of Education to extend the 10-day suspension period for secondary school students scheduled to face disciplinary committee boards for possible expulsion.

After consulting with fellow principals within JAPSS, Molloy stated that ten days is far too short to build cases against some problem students, or convene disciplinary committee boards to hear the cases against them.

“There are types of cases where the incident is a one-off incident. Of course you have to get a paper trail, you have to collect the reports of eyewitnesses, you have to do your investigations, you have to question the parties who are involved, collect your statements and refer that to the board. We have found that ten days is somewhat impractical,” Molloy said.

She said persons who serve on school boards are volunteers and have other commitments.

“Board meetings are set at regular intervals, so when you have to ask them to come in at different times from when the board meeting is set it can create a problem,” she said, “I don’t think documenting the cases is the major problem it is just getting people together which can be a problem,” she said.

Suspended students have the legal right to return to their school after the 10-day suspension period had elapsed.

According to the Education Act Regulations the principal of a school has the power to suspend for up to 10 days any student whose conduct is considered to have, or is likely to have, a detrimental effect on the discipline of the school or cause injury to another student or staff member. During the period of suspension the complaint against the student is referred to the school’s Personnel Committee and then subsequently to the full School Board.

The school board then meets with the student and his parents or guardians within the 10-day suspension period. The student is allowed a person, who may or may not be an attorney, to speak on their behalf.

After the meeting the student may be reinstated without reprimand, suspended for a further 10 days or expelled. The student may however, appeal this decision within 14 days after the date of his expulsion.

“We spoke about this at our last meeting (June 1) and we do have a mandate from the principals present at that meeting to raise the matter with the minister, the need for the code to be addressed. We would like to see a realistic timeline set and we would like to see the code reflect what is happening in society more today,” Molloy said.

But President of the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA), Hopeton Henry, disagrees with Molloy.

He said JTA members were in favour of shortening the 10-day period, citing that it would give the impression of a more decisive disciplinary regime.

“The main concern is that the process is long. The suggestion is to be able to collapse that process and cut it shorter so that between the incident and the making of a decision you have a shorter time frame, so you dispense with justice quicker than having it delayed,” he said.

Henry was also in favour of giving discretionary powers of expulsion to principals and senior members of school staff, and using education legislation to widen the array of disciplinary recourses available to school boards.

“The principal or senior staff could have discretionary power. You would have to set guidelines because then certain persons could abuse the authority entrusted to them. For some offences the principal could have the power to expel and for more serious offenses that is where you bring in the [school] board,” he added.

He said some students would have to be kicked out of the system or sent to a boot camp or a similar rehabilitation institution.

Henry is also in favour of giving the board the option to suspend, expel or even sentence unruly students to do community service.

Chief Education Officer Jasper Lawrence when contacted refused to comment on the issue, referring the Sunday Observer instead to the education regulations.