CLASSES are expected to resume today at Cornwall College in Montego Bay following yesterday’s suspension after an altercation between a parent and the dean of discipline on the school’s compound.

Principal of the all-boys school, Michael Ellis, told the Jamaica Observer that the incident stemmed from a parent visiting the school on Monday with the intention of speaking to the principal about the allegedly bullying of his son by other students.

The male parent was unable to speak with the principal, who, at the time, was in a board meeting. However, he was accommodated by the dean of discipline, who had an almost one-hour meeting with him. A meeting was subsequently arranged for yesterday with the parent to air the problem, and for the school to address the issue.

As arranged, the parent of the complainant returned to school yesterday and was being taken to the principal’s office when he reportedly saw one of the accused students and attacked him. The dean of discipline was reported to have intervened and the parent allegedly physically assaulted him, causing minor injuries.

Ellis said the incident left the staff restive. “So we would have spent the morning, obviously, trying to bring some level of calm back to the school community. I had a meeting with members of the academic staff who, you would imagine, were agitated and would be in a militant mood,” stated Ellis.

He said a meeting was also held with the chairman of the board, Patrick Reid, and the Parent-Teachers Association president.

Ellis said the school’s administration also met with the police.

“I felt that we had a good meeting, and the rest of it is really something that the police will pursue from here onwards,” the principal told the Observer.