'Check another school', Clarendon principal tells relative of student with disability

The Alphansus Davis High School in Clarendon has acknowledged asking a relative of a child with a disability to seek another school for the student because it lacks ramps and other supportive facilities for students who use wheelchairs. 

But principal of the school formerly known as Spalding High, George Henry, is insisting that he told the person that if a "check" for another school proved unsuccessful, his institution was prepared to cater to the student who is to start first form in September. 

"Whoever I spoke with was told that the school does not have the facilities to accommodate the child. I didn't tell the person that the child cannot come to the school," he told The Gleaner on Monday. "The child needs to be in a wheelchair, and for that child to be able to climb staircases, it is going to be difficult, so I said it would have been best if a check is made at another school."

Relatives of the 11-year-old boy have been livid, alleging that the school flatly refused to accept the child because he uses a wheelchair.

He recently graduated from Sanguinetti Primary in the north of the parish. He was placed at Alphansus Davis based on his performance in the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examinations.

The boy's aunt, Marieka Stewart said that on Monday, the child's grandmother went to collect his package for the new school year, and his disability was related to the principal.  According to Stewart, the grandmother said she was told that the school could not facilitate the child, and that she should try another school. 

"They said she should try Edwin Allen [High] and that was it. She asked if she would get a letter or anything of that sort; dem sey no, she must just gwaan or call Ministry [of Education] and that was it," Stewart reported of the alleged encounter. 

Stewart said while at Sanguinetti Primary, her nephew was assigned an aide for his day-to-day activities. She claimed the option was communicated to the principal but was also shot down. The principal has rejected that claim.

"If it could be done at the primary level, why can't it be done at the high school level? Why you just say you can't accept him because of the wheelchair? That is it?" she questioned, pointing to last week's controversy that erupted at Merl Grove High in St Andrew involving a student with a disability. 

She said she is concerned for her nephew whom she said struggles with self-acceptance issues.

Principal Henry has insisted that if the family is unable to find another school to accommodate the child, Alphansus Davis High is prepared to make the necessary adjustments.

"But it is going to be extremely difficult, because students have to move from classroom to classroom, and I don't know how that child would be able to get to the third floor of the building," he said. 

Henry said if the student is assigned an assistant, the assistant, too would have challenges manoeuvring the wheelchair around the school, as the school is not retrofitted with ramps to facilitate movement of disabled students.

Telephone calls to the ministry's director of Region 7, Barrington Richardson, have gone unanswered. 

This latest case comes less than a week after Merl Grove High in St Andrew rejected reports that it denied a place to a grade seven student because she uses a wheelchair. 

Acting Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education Dr Kasan Troupe, disclosed on Thursday that $2 million will be spent to retrofit buildings at the school to accommodate students with disabilities.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Security warned against discrimination against persons with disabilities and pointed to the Disabilities Act and its regulations which carry serious penalties for breaches. 

- Olivia Brown 

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