Social enquiry report ordered on teacher beater
January 31, 2008
AN woman, who stormed onto the Kingston High School compound and assaulted a female teacher whom she claimed had slapped her 14-year-old daughter, had her bail extended when she appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday.
Nadine Kelly, who pleaded guilty to the charge, was also ordered to submit a social enquiry report to the court.
Kelly told the court that she became enraged one day last week after her 14-year-old daughter, who is a student at the school, came home and told her that a teacher had slapped her several times, while grabbing her by the scruff of the neck and pressing her against a wall.
She said she went to the school last Thursday and despite complaining to the principal, became enraged when her daughter pointed out the teacher who allegedly slapped her. She then attacked the teacher.
The investigating officer told the court that ice had to be applied to the teacher's neck and hands after which a report was made to the police.
The school's principal, Charles Reid, added that the teacher sustained a fracture to her hand and a sprained foot during the melee.
The prosecution told the court that Kelly used a chair to hit the teacher repeatedly. Kelly, however, denied doing so.
"You cannot go to the school and attack the teacher, that's a no-no. If you have a problem you go to the principal. If every parent went to school and acted like you, how would anything get resolved? You [had] a right and you gave it away," presiding magistrate, Glen Brown, told Kelly.
Kelly, in response, said: "I'm not proud of what I did."
Asked by the magistrate to explain what occurred, Reid told the court that Kelly had indeed visited the school to speak to him last Thursday about an alleged incident in which her daughter was slapped by a teacher.
Reid said he instructed Kelly's daughter to write a report on the matter and promised Kelly to have the matter investigated, even though he was sceptical because there was no commotion by the students on the day the student was allegedly slapped, which was typical with incidents of that nature.
He said after dismissing Kelly and her daughter, he stepped into his bathroom for a moment and returned, only to hear a commotion in the middle out of the schoolyard. He said it was then he witnessed several students trying to restrain Kelly, while others were leading the teacher away.
After listening to the principal's story, Brown then opted to have probation officers conduct a social enquiry report into Kelly's home and background. The matter was then rescheduled for February 26, when the findings of the report are to be produced.
Author: Vaughn Davis
Source: Jamaica Observer
