Councillor Dean Jones (Jamaica Labour Party, Trinityville Division) on Thursday sparked a squabble in the monthly meeting of the St Thomas Municipal Corporation as he accused Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President Mark Malabver of trying to score political points with his claim that children were exposed to sex acts by people sheltering in some schools.

Jones was promptly challenged by Councillor Hubert Williams (People’s National Party, White Horses Division), who argued that the allegations should first be properly investigated.

The exchange was triggered by comments Malabver made earlier this week about conditions at some schools in western Jamaica that are still being used as shelters for people displaced by Hurricane Melissa.

Addressing the opening of the JTA Education Conference in Hanover, Malabver said reports had reached the union that some students were being exposed to sexual activity by shelterees.

While the school(s) at the centre of Malabver’s comments are in the west, the issue found its way into the St Thomas’ Municipal Corporation’s monthly meeting based on the JTA president’s connection to the parish.

Malabver is principal of Yallahs High School and has had a political history in St Thomas Western, where he was once named as the PNP’s candidate/caretaker for the constituency.

Jones argued that Malabver should have first taken the matter to the relevant authorities instead of raising it publicly.

“I want to say to the president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association that, if you’re seeking political mileage, you need to look elsewhere. You cannot politicise the office that you’re sitting in. He’s one of the worst presidents that the JTA has ever seen in the history of this country, and for that reason, you need to apologise to the nation for that statement that you have made about what happened in the shelter. You should have done due diligence. You should have called the person that is in charge before you go publicly and say these things,” Jones charged.

He added that if the allegations were presented to Malabver in confidence, they should have been quietly escalated to the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Local Government before becoming part of the public conversation.

“We agree, we are not condoning what you said happened in the school, in the shelter, we are against it. But at the end of the day, due process must follow. Go and do the right thing. Speak to the relevant authority before you come public,” declared Jones.

But the PNP’s Williams took a different view as he argued that the more urgent issue was whether the allegations were true and what they said about the prolonged use of schools as shelters.

“Where we would have a problem is if what Mr Malabver said was not factual. But I think once he is saying something, we can’t prove that what he’s saying is not factual… if these statements are factual, then the people of Jamaica should know about it,” Williams said.

He argued that months after the hurricane, schools should no longer be operating in a way that disrupts normal teaching and learning, and suggested the claims by Malabver should be examined rather than dismissed.

“It is my honest opinion that the school must be restored to its original function. And if these things are going on, I think what we should do as a people, is since Mr Malabver made his statement, do the necessary investigation to find out if Mr Malabver is just trying to cause trouble. Because these are worrying things that we should be really concerned about, if it’s true, more than just shake them out like that,” Williams said.

Malabver, in his original comments, said the reports were “deeply troubling” and suggested that some schools had become environments unfit for learning. He also complained that some institutions were operating on shift systems or with students displaced from classrooms because parts of the compounds were still being used to house shelterees.

The Ministry of Education has since said it had not received any formal report of such incidents before Malabver’s comments but would be investigating the allegation.

Councillor for the White Horses Division in St Thomas Hubert Williams addressing the monthly meeting of the municipal corporation on Thursday. (Photo:  Jerome Williams)