NOT having a functioning device for online learning and forced to care for her very ill mother, 14-year-old Petashaey Hall missed more than a year of classes at Tarrant High School in St Andrew, and was poised to miss another.

However, a turn of events after the Jamaica Observer published a story highlighting her mother Kemarie Johnson’s battle with kidney disease and the teen missing school as a result will see a now elated Petashaey returning to classes in September.

Tarrant High connected with the family, pledging support, after the story was made public.

“I am very delighted to see everybody come onboard to help, especially the school. I need to catch up on my education. Things have been very hard. I missed almost two years of school because Mommy was getting increasingly ill. We were living in Lawrence Tavern and, at that time, she didn’t have any funds to give me so I stopped and stayed home to help her.

“I cook for her, and stuff like that. Anything I have to do for myself, I have to do it for her, like washing and so on. Right now, the next step is to get… even a plyboard house, because we are… living with relatives at the moment,” she told the Observer yesterday, adding that Tarrant High School said it will provide groceries for the family.

Principal of Tarrant High Paul Hall was also happy that the teen will rejoin the school family in September. He shared that Petashaey will receive a brand-new tablet and will also be given new uniforms, at no cost to her family.

The principal pointed out that Petashaey was among roughly 300 students out of a population of 1,200 who had been regularly absent from school due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. He shared that the school has been hosting remedial classes to give those students the opportunity to catch up on their lessons, so as not be left behind.

“She will get a tablet because presently we have digital devices in place that were donated by past students living overseas. Our guidance counselling department is checking with the family to see what else they need. As a school, we will help the family. Whatever she needs, we are willing to assist, and where we can assist with her mom’s medical expenses, we will,” Hall said.

The high school’s dean of discipline, Sharon Wright, told the Observer that they tried feverishly to contact the family the moment the teen’s absenteeism started. She explained that the telephone number the school had on file for Petashaey’s mother was out of service. Wright, too, was pleased Petashaey will be an active member of the Tarrant High School family again.

“We didn’t know how to find her. We are happy we found her because we were really wondering what was happening. She told us that she had moved from Lawrence Tavern, where she was living when she started the school, because of the hilly terrain, and [that] her mother couldn’t manage. She, too, was happy to hear from us. She is so mature! She is the one taking care of mommy, although she is the youngest of three children, but she wants to come back to school,” Wright said.

At 41 years old, Hall’s mother has been struggling to cope with stage five kidney disease. Up to last week, she wasn’t able to breathe on her own. She told the Observer that she has gone blind in one eye and reported partial blindness in the other, and shared that it is daunting to afford food and diapers. The Lawrence Tavern Primary School Builders Club in St Andrew, where Petashaey attended before Tarrant High, has been instrumental in seeking donations of food and toiletries for mother and daughter.