‘Terrible act of injustice’

The management of the St Catherine-based Sunbeam Children’s Home is set to challenge the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) next Wednesday in the Court of Appeal over the agency’s decision to remove the male wards from the facility’s care, arguing that the removal was carried out without due process.

The appeal hearing, originally scheduled for yesterday, has been rescheduled the aforementioned date.

The CPFSA, through a court order granted by the Supreme Court in March of last year, removed 52 wards from the children’s home’s two facilities after internal investigations revealed continued instances of child abuse at the facility. The state agency also delicensed the home, which had been operating for nearly 50 years and had worked closely with the State.

Aggrieved by the CPFSA’s decision, the manager of the children’s home, Desmond Whitely, filed a claim to appeal the Supreme Court’s removal order.

“We are contending that the process by which the children were removed from us is illegal. It did not follow the law, and we hope to prove that,” he told The Gleaner yesterday. “Due process was not followed, and CPFSA seems to be in undue haste.”

According to Whitely, the agency violated the rights of the children by removing them without a care plan and in an “ ad hoc” manner.

“It was a terrible act of injustice by the CPFSA to have treated them this way,” he added.

Whitely noted that the CPFSA had initially brought the matter before the Children’s Court to obtain the removal order but later abandoned the case there and took it to the Supreme Court.

CONCERNED FOR CHILDREN

However, he stressed that one of his main reasons for pursuing the issue now is his concern for the children whose lives have been “tremendously disturbed”.

The children’s home operator added that the children were not properly placed and are now scattered across the country at different facilities.

Whitely, in the meantime, lamented how the CPFSA treated the home after the situation unfolded.

He said 20 workers were left jobless when the agency revoked the licence, and that the home was left in a financial bind, with huge bills and supplies to cover, as well as a redundancy package of over $15 million which remains unsettled.

Whitely mentioned that the home had reached out to the CPFSA for assistance but was ignored.

“They haven’t even looked back to say ‘thank you’ after almost 50 years of serving Jamaican children. They didn’t even have the courtesy to respond to our letter. This is the first time that a home has been closed in Jamaica,” he said.

CPFSA CEO Laurette Adams-Thomas explained last year that the decision to revoke the licence and remove the children was made after various attempts to address the abuse, including meetings with the chairman of the facility’s board and the hosting of behaviour modification training with the facility’s staff.

However, she stated that, despite these interventions, the agency’s internal investigation revealed that the abuse was continuing.

Attorney-at-law Steven Powell, who is representing the CPFSA, disclosed during a hearing in the St Catherine Parish Court last year that a machete was used to assault a boy at the institution in January 2024.

Adams-Thomas further shared that reports of physical abuse had been made to the National Children’s Registry as far back as 2020, and that there had been continuous communication with the management of the facility to address the issue.

However, Whitely denied being aware of this, noting that there had been no communication from the CPFSA regarding the situation or the agency’s intentions prior to the home being delicensed

Attorney-at-law Sarah Dixon is representing the children’s home.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com