THE principal of Ascot High School, Cedric Murray, said there is hope for Vashon McCarthy to participate at the ISSA Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships, as long as he is a part of the school’s athletics programme.

Murray, who has been principal of the Portmore institution for the last 10 years, broke his silence yesterday and said that the door is very much open.

“There is always hope. The door was never, ever totally closed. The school board will meet on Friday and then we will take a decision,” said Murray. “There are a lot of wounds, and the greater wound is Vashon’s wound and that is the wound that I am really concerned about.”

On Monday, the Jamaica Observer broke the story that young McCarthy, Jamaica’s Carifta discus champion, might not be allowed to participate at Champs because of differences with the school. McCarthy, who is actually the second person and not first, as reported earlier, to strike gold for the school, is being coached by renowned field event coach Michael Vassell of Excelsior High.

“He is not in the programme and that is my problem. That is my fundamental point. If the school has a programme, you have to be a part of it and you can go and get any technical assistance anywhere in the world, and I don’t have a problem with that. But you must take some form of instruction from the school,” Murray asserted.

McCarthy’s mother, Dianna Lennon, cried foul after she was told that her son was not going to be entered by the school at the prestigious Boys’ and Girls’ Championships, arguing that what Vashon was getting was tantamount to extra lessons.

But Murray refuted that claim and instead posited that McCarthy left the school’s sports programme and has not trained at the institution since September.

“No. He just didn’t turn up. I was the person who initiated the first meeting, and it was at that meeting that things broke down and everything went awry,” said Murray.

But Lennon countered that her son was indeed training at the school at that time. “Vashon was training with Mr McLaughin in September,” said Lennon, after consulting with her son.

“Mr McLaughin helps out in the sports department, yes,” admitted the principal. “The thing is that he (Vashon) came (went to training) and the coach (McLaughin) was not paying him any attention. So he left based on that,” he claimed.

“But he left on his own because nobody knew that he was leaving. There was no discussion. So, if it is that you are having a problem with the coach, I am the principal, you come to me and tell me about the problem. Let me then find out from the coach and the coaching staff what is happening and we address it. But you can’t just leave and gone,” reiterated Murray.

Fingers were then pointed at Ascot’s track and field head coach Errol Messiah, who in fact also helps out with coaching at Calabar High School.

Claims are that McCarthy was not getting the proper assistance and coaching from one of Messiah’s assistants, hence his decision to go to Excelsior High in the evenings.

“Messiah is coaching at Calabar,” Lennon said. “He asked Vashon to come up to Calabar and train but Vashon said he is not going up there, so what is the difference if he goes down to Excelsior and train?” she asked.

But Ascot’s principal said as long as they have a programme, young McCarthy must be a part of it, even though he has no problem with him seeking outside help.

“The school is operating with a sports programme and it is the same sports programme that found him in the first place and took him to Champs in the first place and helped him to get the first medal. It’s the same programme and the same coach,” reasoned Murray.

“What now would have changed so dramatically? Nothing could have changed that dramatically over the last year and by we get to 2013, you are no good. We are now questioning the qualification of the gentleman. That can’t be right,” he vented.

But Lennon is adamant that the school doesn’t really have a programme that will help take her son to the next step.

However, the principal, who has taken a lot of flak for the issue, said he is a man of principle and is only doing what is best.

“He went to a developmental meet under the name of the school. Who in the school knows anything about it and if he went up there and picked up an injury or picked up some drugs, who is responsible?” asked Murray.

He continued: “I don’t know Mr Vassell. I don’t know nothing at all about him and I will be asked to sign on his behalf. It will now be Mr Vassell, who will send a note to me to say this is Vashon’s performance and I am asked now to attach my signature and my signature must mean something,” Murray said.

“You leave and you didn’t tell me and now you come back to me and say sign this paper. I don’t know what is happening.

” According to the principal, he doesn’t know a thing about track and field and he depends on his staff to advise him on certain matters, and Mr Vassell is not a part of that.

“I call my staff together and asked how to proceed and if they said, yes, I sign, because they are my staff,” said Murray.

“I can’t just sign willy-nilly and you gone about your business again. And if anything happened along the line you come back to me and I must rubber-stamp it. Then I would be derelict in my duties as a principal. What would be the example to the other students?”