Principal of Cumberland High School Michael Brydson yesterday defended himself against reports that he physically abused one of his students during a confrontation at the St Catherine school last Friday.

Dean of discipline at the school, Rene Level, told the Jamaica Observer on Monday that the student, who is in grade nine, was being reprimanded by Brydson when things took a turn for the worse. Level, who noted that she was not present at the time of the confrontation, said it got physical, after which the student allegedly used a large stone to break the rear windshield of the principal’s vehicle.

Another teacher told the Observer yesterday that the principal used a switch to hit the schoolgirl on her foot.

“What I heard in the media is totally exaggerated, unfounded and untruth, for the most part,” the principal said yesterday. “Of course the child was reprimanded, but she was behaving disrespectfully, boisterously, and she used expletives when she was asked to do the correct thing. She pointed her hands in my face and when I realised she was not complying, I left for my office and that was when I heard my car alarms and found that she had thrown a stone into the back window of my car,” Brydson said.

The principal, who spent most of yesterday in meetings with representatives from the Ministry of Education, Member of Parliament Colin Fagan and the staff members, also sought to defend himself against reports that he refused to speak to the media.

According to the principal, he has had to be in meetings since the incident, hence the reason he was not very accessible to the media.

“I am not of the opinion that I did something wrong so I should be hiding,” he said yesterday.

In the meantime, classes at the St Catherine school are expected to be affected for a third-straight day today. As a result of last Friday’s incident, regular activities at the school have been at a standstill since Monday, when the staff staged a sit-in. A staff workshop that had been planned for Monday as well as Girls’ Day, scheduled for yesterday, were both cancelled.

Yesterday when the Observer visited the school the teachers pointed out that they have agreed to end their protest, but no classes were being taught; however, the students were being supervised by the teachers.

At the same time, the school’s principal told the media that he could not guarantee whether normality would return today, as the staff morale was still very low.

The Ministry of Education has since launched an investigation into the incident and has promised to address some of the school’s security needs.

“There are some concerns coming out from the staff relating to their own safety and security, as well as behavioural issue of the students, and we are looking at it in a fulsome way,” Assistant Superintendent of Police Coleridge Minto, director of safety and security in schools in the ministry, said yesterday.

As it relates to the perimeter fencing for which the school has been lobbying for years, Minto said: “The matter of fencing is still on the agenda for the ministry. We would have toured this school months ago and we would have done a full security audit, not just in terms of physical security, but looking at all aspects of the school.

“We are aware that there are some things we need to look at. We spoke about a surveillance camera system that needs to be upgraded. There are two security personnel here, we are going to be looking at whether or not we can increase that (number),” he added.

Fagan, for his part, said he will be seeking a meeting with the minister of education to discuss the way forward for the school.

“The ministry needs to start looking at Cumberland as a specialised school with special needs, with teachers who would have specialised training to deal with students who are at the point of being an outcast,” he said.

The MP however thinks that smashing a teacher’s car window is “going too far”.

“For a student to react to a teacher’s reprimand by smashing his car window is really going too far. It’s really hitting at the heart of the institution when you get to the point where a student is destroying what is owned by the teachers; it is a serious cause for concern,” he said.

— Tanesha Mundle