Judge, QC’s acting Principal clash over assault of child

…school’s Board launches probe

The Board of Governors of Queen’s College is probing an incident in which it is alleged that High Court Judge Navindra Singh was reportedly aggressive with the school’s Deputy Principal over the way an altercation between his daughter and a boy – both students of the said school – was handled.
Contacted on Thursday, Education Minister Priya Manickchand declined to comment on the matter “at this time”, since it is being dealt with by the school’s Board.
“Queen’s College has a Board, and the Board has only today [Thursday] invited Justice Singh to respond to the allegation against him,” noted Manickchand in the telephone interview.
When Guyana Times phoned the Board’s Chairman, Marcel Gaskin, he would only say: “My statement is that the matter has engaged the attention of the Board, but I am not going to go into any details, because there are children involved…”

The school’s acting principal, Candaice Cave-Stephen wrote a letter to the Board of the school, dated November 15, and to the Assistant Chief Education Officer (Secondary), Tiffany Harvey.
She claimed in the missive, seen by this publication, that on October 27 there was an incident between a male student and a female student, both of whom are in Grade Eight. The female student is the daughter of Justice Singh while the boy’s father is a senior education official.
Both students, she revealed, confirmed that the female was trying to enter a classroom when the male prevented her from doing so, by placing his arms across the door.
This resulted in the students pushing/hitting each other, Cave-Stephen claimed.
According to Cave-Stephen, she instructed both students to apologise to each other and cautioned them not to repeat this kind of behaviour.
However, a few minutes later, the acting Principal recalled, she received a phone call from Justice Singh, who expressed his dissatisfaction with how she resolved the matter.
Cave-Stephen claimed that when she attempted to explain why that course of action was taken, Justice Singh interrupted.
“Who do you think you are to have my child apologise to someone who hit her? I am recording you, are you saying that if someone hits my child she must not hit back? …This matter will be reported to the Police and I will bring the Police into Queen’s College to you,” the teacher claimed the Judge said.
The acting Principal said she replied “Noted, Sir” before ending the call. She said she then called the male student’s mother, related the matter to her and how it was resolved, and implored her to talk with her son to ensure that there was not a reoccurrence of the incident.

Police arrival
However, sometime after 11:00h on November 11, in the foyer outside the Principal’s office, Cave-Stephen related that she was approached by Justice Singh, who informed her that he and the Police have a meeting with her the said morning.
“I indicated to him that I have no meeting scheduled with him and any Police Officer and went into the office with two education officers with whom I had another meeting at the time. I asked the Deputy Principal (ag) to inform Justice Singh and the Police Officers that I will not be engaging them at the school and they should visit the Ministry of Education,” the acting Principal claimed.
However, according to the acting Principal of the school, the Deputy Principal (ag), Lenise Parker returned to her office in a ‘traumatised state’, claiming that Justice Singh, in the presence of the two officers, shouted at her, called her a liar, and was aggressive.
She said an Assistant Commissioner of Police sent two officers over to the school to address the situation.
She then claimed that a relative of Justice Singh’s daughter went to the classroom of the male student and “pushed” him, causing another issue to emerge.
A brief meeting was called and that issue was resolved.
However, this newspaper was told that the Judge did not take the Police to the school. In fact, after he reported the matter to the Police, a senior Education Ministry official advised that the Police visit the school. This newspaper was told that this was done to avoid the children being taken to a Police station.
Guyana Times was also told that Justice Singh made several queries about the incident, but his efforts were futile. This led to him going to the school for a meeting with the acting Principal.
This newspaper understands that the male student is also being investigated after it was reported that he was aggressive with other students.
The matter was reported to the school’s Board, and the Deputy Principal was advised that some standard operating procedures as it relates to visits to the school by parents or others should be implemented, for the safety and security of the students and staff of the College. (G1)