SAVANNA LA MAR, Westmoreland — Homes battered by Hurricane Melissa which destroyed school uniforms and identification cards, some students in sections of the hardest-hit parish, Westmoreland, now have yet another mountain to climb.

Out of uniform and without anything to prove they are students, they are being charged adult fares by some taxi operators.

Students pay $100 while adults pay between $150 and $250, depending on the route.

With many parents out of work, savings depleted, and the urgent need to secure food and shelter, the increased cost of daily transportation to and from school has become an overwhelming strain for many.

Struggling to rebuild their lives while burdened with the very heavy weight of lost possessions, and in some cases their entire homes, the students and their parents are pleading for State intervention.

“Miss, I don’t have it and my mother nuh have it,” said Kereen Richards, a student of Godfrey Stewart High School and resident of Water Works, one of the communities devastated by the hurricane.

Like many in her district, Richards and her family are now homeless. Their house was torn apart by the Category 5 storm’s 185 mph winds and later submerged during severe flooding.

“I just come to school three times from school open back,” Richards told the Jamaica Observer. “I have CXC [exams] to do and honestly I can’t do any better. I don’t think I am coming for the rest of the term.”

Another Godfrey Stewart student, June Johnson, shared that she not only lost her uniforms, but also her textbooks, notebooks, and other essentials for learning. Her mother, employed at a hotel in Negril before Melissa’s rampage, is now out of work. The hotel sent out a statement that it will not reopen until August 2026. The family’s financial future is now hanging by a very weak thread.

Arguing that the ‘adult fare policy’ is driving absenteeism and placing vulnerable students at even greater risk of falling behind, especially those preparing for external exams, parents from several communities across the parish are urging the authorities to intervene.

“I’m not only thinking about the rest of this term,” said parent Iona Whitfield. “I am burdened with rebuilding my house, and now going to have to replace uniforms and school books. I hope the Government can implement something so that the students can travel every day without concern about paying adult fare.”

Taxi operators, however, say the situation is more complex than it appears.

Troy Reid, who plies the Grange Hill to Savanna-la-Mar route, explained that the adult fare charge is not an act of price gouging but has long been the established policy.

“It’s not overcharging, it is the norm. Once they’re out of uniform they pay the same as adults,” Reid said. “However, given the circumstances, most of us don’t charge them the full adult fare. Some pay the same $100, but most of them pay $150 right across the board, whether from Sav straight to Grange Hill or in-between. I can speak for me and a few of my colleagues, I can’t speak for the wider operators, if you get what I mean.”

Another taxi operator, Elvis Myers, highlighted the practical challenge of identifying students who are not in uniform.

“To be honest, it hard fi know all a dem, because mi use to dem in uniform. Out of uniform, they’re totally different. Dem look way bigger and older,” Myers said. “A just the ones who me know personally, like my regulars who drive with me every day. Outside of that, it’s very difficult to know who going to school and who is not.”

Compounding the confusion is the current attendance rotation at Manning’s School, where senior students attend Mondays to Wednesdays and the lower school attends Thursdays and Fridays. Taxi operators say this makes it even harder to determine who should pay the student rate when children are not in uniform.

“Once they are out of uniform and travelling the norm is the regular adult rate,” Reid explained. “We don’t always know if they’re heading to school or somewhere else.”

Whitfield explained that her daughter normally relies on the Government’s rural school bus system for transportation, but the bus schedule no longer aligns with the time she is able to reach the main road.

“We live far off the main, and since the storm, taxi services from our community to the main road have been limited. By the time she gets out to catch the school bus, it already passed,” she said.

Despite repeated attempts, the
Observer was unable to get a comment from Minister of Transport Daryl Vaz on the issue.

Desperate for a solution, some students have been asking Good Samaritans who bring them supplies to add school uniforms to the list, if at all possible. They are hoping for even a short-term solution just until the end of this school term.

“I really would a like something [to be done],” Whitfield urged. “Either she get help to get back some new uniform or they allow them to get some bus passes that show that they are going to school. But I can’t afford it right now.”

Students, some in uniform, at Manning’s School in Hurricane Melissa-battered Westmoreland. (Photos: Rosalee Wood Condell)

The entrance to Manning’s School in Westmoreland, one of the parishes worst affected by Hurricane Melissa