Students watch principal have sex - Office romance busted

A small community in Manchester has been buzzing with claims that a principal of a primary school was watched by students, as he had sex with a female teacher in his office.
Information reaching THE WEEKEND STAR is that a few days ago a student went to the headmaster's office and knocked repeatedly to no avail. He is said to have listened for an answer but heard strange sounds like people having sex.
The child is said to have informed other kids and a staff member and the group reportedly took turns peeping in on the alleged romance.
When our news team visited the community recently, the incident was the talk of the town.
An elderly resident said: "Him (the principal) did hungry. Him shouldn't do it when everybody deh deh. But them can't kill him for that cause him come turn the school around. I believe is because him young and feel fit."
Another resident added: "Yea man, a real thing. A so mi hear di pickney dem a talk yesterday enuh, mi couldn't believe. Principal nuh easy. Mi nephew inna grade three and tell mi say principal and teacher lock up inna room a sex."
Two grade-two students spoke cautiously about the incident. One said: "Mi nuh see but him see (referring to his friend). Him can tell yu everything weh dem did a do".
His friend in turn said: "Mi see but mi nah tell yuh cause a our private business. Mi gone back a school."
A fifth-grade student, however, approached THE WEEKEND STAR at a shop and asked: "Excuse mi, Sir, a di principal unuh come investigate? Mi know enuh. Him and di guidance counsellor lock up inna him office a do dem thing. Dem a have sex in deh, so di pickney dem nuh watch dem. Di guidance counsellor sexy enuh and full of shape and ting".
Our news team was told that the female teacher is in her 20s, and is known to dress 'hot' and enjoys flirting with males.
The principal, however, told a news team which visited the school that he was hearing about the incident for the first time. "I'm not guilty to anything, rumours will always spread," he said, adding that "any negativity that exists to pull down the school, won't work."

Cabinet approves new policy for pregnant schoolgirls

CABINET has signed off on a new policy that advocates for the mandatory re-integration of all school-aged mothers into the formal school system.

The policy takes effect this September.

Education Minister Ronald Thwaites last month tabled a Ministry Paper in the Lower House, indicating that the policy paper had been submitted to the Cabinet for approval. At the time, he said the measure would help Jamaica fulfil international policy and development aims contained in the Millennium Development Goals, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

The issue was raised in Parliament in February by Opposition Senator Kamina Johnson Smith when she sought to have the Education Act amended to change the regulations requiring automatic expulsion of pregnant girls from the public school system.

Senator Sandrea Falconer, the minister in charge of information, told yesterday's Jamaica House press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister in Kingston that the approved policy will clear up existing misconceptions.

"The education regulations provide that a girl who becomes pregnant shall leave the formal school system during the period of her pregnancy. The minister of education has the discretion to facilitate the re-entry of such girls into educational institutions," said Falconer.

However, she said the converse existed.

"No policy framework existed for the exercise of this discretion. Instead, at times, schools have misinterpreted the provision and treated the girls as absent from the school permanently. The schools will now be advised and places temporarily vacated by a student during her pregnancy should be retained for the student's return to school following the completion of an approved transitional programme," Falconer told reporters.

She added that the policy would provide the same flexibility to students wishing to attend a different school after the birth of their child.

In the meantime, a preventative message, designed to reduce teenage births, will be a critical component of the policy while prevention messages will be integrated into the school-based and national adolescent sexual and reproductive health and family programmes which target potential teenaged fathers.

 

Retired DCP Jevene Bent

Retired Deputy Commissioner of Police Jevene Bent is tipped to assume the position of commissioner of corrections.

Gleaner sources revealed yesterday that Bent, who retired last month as the first female deputy commissioner of police (DCP) in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), is set to take up the position currently held by Lieutenant Colonel Sean Prendergast.

Prendergast is to demit office at the end of the month to go on pre-retirement leave from the Jamaica Defence Force after serving a three-year stint at the Department of Corrections.
Prendergast succeeded June Spence-Jarrett in the wake of the damning findings of a commission of enquiry into the Armadale tragedy three years ago.

When contacted by The Gleaner about the appointment, Bent said: "I can't respond to that."
Last night, National Security Minister Peter Bunting noted that such appointments are made by the Public Service Commission and not the political directorate.

If confirmed,Bent's appointment would coincide with heightened public interest in the treatment of youths under state care in the aftermath of the suicide of a ward of the state as well as mounting concerns over their placement and treatment by members of the correctional services who have direct responsibility for their care.

Downtown Kingston vendors protest

ANGRY vendors in downtown Kingston yesterday staged a demonstration on Orange Street to protest against what they described as the unfair treatment being meted out to them by the police.

The vendors claimed they have become targets by the police who have intensified operations to remove vendors from the sidewalks of the commercial district.

"The police them a treat us unfairly; they take away our carts and goods and we don't get them back [and] at times when our goods are returned they are damaged or the quantity is less," one vendor told the Jamaica Observer.

Some of the vendors shouted at the police while bearing placards, some of which read: 'Where is the prime minister'; 'School fees and bills need to be paid'.

One vendor, Cornelia McDonald, who has been selling in downtown Kingston for more than a decade, described her experience with police officers as tormenting and abusive.

"Them a seize our goods, dash them away and we are being locked up, fined and required to pay up to $11,000 for their return sometimes," McDonald said.

"Me get beaten from police four weeks ago. Them beat me up and pepper spray me, then took me to the police station. After I was released my handbag with my money, keys and documents were missing and none of them could give an account. Even though this happens we are still being charged", McDonald further stated.

She said that while she understands the effort the police were making to remove vendors from the streets, the market to which they have been being directed does not have enough space.

"It's graduation time now and they are seizing our goods, how we children a go manage, they are stopping our job and a our 'pickney' a go feel it," said McDonald.

One female vendor claimed that she was told to become a prostitute to earn money when she asked the police about an alternative job when her goods were seized. "They said you affi go work a New Kingston (to sell body) if you can't make a profit anyway else," she said.

Nehemiah Henry, a vendor for over three decades, vowed to keep up the protes

t until better provisions have been made for he and his colleagues, saying vending was his only source of income.

"I will protest for the entire week if I have to, there is no other way of getting money. I don't rob or kill people, this is my honest bread and now I'm being hindered from earning it. There are no systems or provisions in place for us to go to the market...," said Henry.

The angry vendors said that in the current economic situation it was difficult to progress and that the clampdown by the police could lead to violence, adding that their cry for a better system has fallen on deaf ears. One vendor said the city's mayor has been silent on the matter and vowed that their frustration would be reflected on the ballot paper in the next election as they have lost hope.

"We will not vote again, especially for the mayor, as she has done nothing for our support," said one angry vendor.

The Kingston and St Andrew Corporation is now controlled by the People's National Party and led by Mayor Angela Brown Burke.

Hoodlums rob Usain Bolt's dad

FALMOUTH, Trelawny -- Wellesly Bolt, the father of sprinting legend Usain Bolt was reportedly robbed in Falmouth this morning of cash amount to over $400,OOO.

According to the elder Bolt, the money was stolen from his Toyota pick-up truck which was parked in the vicinity of the Falmouth Municipal Market at about 10:00am.

He told the Jamaica Observer that the money was stolen minutes after he left a commercial bank.

" Someone apparently was trailing me," he said, adding that the robber gained entry to the vehicle by breaking the window on the driver's side of the vehicle.

The matter has been reported to the Falmouth Police.