Merl Grove Board of Management Chairman David Hall has taken issue with the Jamaica Observer’s coverage of the imbroglio at the high school, particularly a report last week stating that he was absent from a planned disciplinary hearing for suspended Principal Dr Marjorie Fullerton.

The story published on September 22 said that Hall did not attend the hearing and, in the end, it was postponed to October 12, 2021 to give time to the board of management of the all-girls’ school which had triggered the meeting by suspending Dr Fullerton on September 10.

In a letter to the Observer Hall said the story “is totally false as it gives the clear impression that I, as chairman, was absent and my absence resulted in the hearing being adjourned”.

“That was not the reason why the hearing was adjourned. The hearing was formally convened on Tuesday, September 21, 2021 and adjourned upon the application of Dr Fullerton’s attorneys-at-law who wrote to the chairman of the Personnel Committee on September 20, 2021, the night before the hearing, advising that they were recently retained and requested information and numerous documents in order to properly prepare Dr Fullerton’s defence. I am not a member of the Personnel Committee and therefore was not required to attend the hearing,” added Hall.

He also took issue with an editorial dealing with the issue published the following day headlined ‘Time to put an end to this Merl Grove fiasco’.

He pointed to the section of the editorial stating that “Instead, the hearing turned out to be nothing less than a farce, with some of the key participants, including the board chairman, not showing up and those who did being woefully unprepared” and said that statement is “totally false as the reason for the adjournment was the application for an adjournment by Dr Fullerton’s attorneys-at-law and not the absence of participants including myself”.