At left, students of Hartlands All Age weep for thier principal at his funeral two years ago. At right is Keith Morris, Principal of Hartland All Age, who
is survived by his wife, Beverly and
six children. -File photographs
'I miss my father's
presence. I am angry that he was taken from us so soon, but the pain is not as intense and sharp as it used to be.'
- Junior Morris, son
Claude Mills, Staff Reporter
IT'S BEEN two years.
Two long, hard years of countless tears and emotional heartbreak for Beverly Morris since the father of her children and love of her life, was snatched from her by the cruel hands of fate.
Two heart-rending years for the colleagues and students of Principal Keith Morris during which they have tried without luck to patch the big hole in their life where Mr. Morris used to be.
Two years. Twenty four months. 746 days. But who's counting? Right?
Throughout those interminable days, the family of Keith Morris, the principal of Hartland's All-Age School in south-west St. Catherine, who was shot dead during a robbery at a Braeton bar, has suffered their loss with a quiet, hard-won dignity.
"I miss my father's presence. I am angry that he was taken from us so soon, but the pain is not as intense and sharp as it used to be. I haven't received any counselling for what happened, and the only time I've cried was at the funeral, but it hurts still," Junior, 23 year-old son of the slain principal, said.
After the incident, wife Beverly Morris, a teacher of Belmont Primary School, had had what vice principal Mrs. Joan Duncan calls an 'emotional breakdown'.
"She won't be returning to school until May 1, 2003" Mrs. Duncans told Lifestyle.
At the moment, Mrs. Morris is at home, still trying to recuperate from the trauma. She admitted to having had a breakdown, but insisted that she is 'trying to get past' the episode.
"The family is coping, we are doing O.K, but I don't like talking about the episode, even now that I am speaking, it brings back bad memories. I just want to forget about it. The more these things bring up, the more I hurt, I don't want to go through the trauma again," Mrs. Morris.
But there are people who miss him and care about him?
"People miss him, but I think that sometimes when they call, they use it as opportunity to get information, that's all. Not even Ministry of Education which he gave so much support to called me. Nobody called me to find out how I was doing, not even J.T.A who said they would help me with a trust fund has lived up to their promise," Mrs. Morris said.
"I told them they should just give me the $50,000 that Minister Fitz Jackson gave to the JTA on my behalf, but I have only gotten $25,000 out of that money, but the JTA can have the rest of the trust fund...I leave them to God," she said.
I want the Keith Morris trust fund to close because I don't like how the general secretary of the JTA has ignored and insulted me when I asked them for help a year ago," she said.
According to Mrs. Sadie Comrie, president of the Jamaica Teachers Association, Mrs. Morris has been 'most unco-operative in the administration of the fund'.
"In item 8.3 of general council meeting of Saturday, November 24, 2002, it was announced that the committee was still having problems getting a family member to sit on the Keith Morris Fund committee. It was suggested that the fund be dissolved, meaning that she would get the money and the JTA would have nothing further to do with the fund," Mrs.Comrie said.
"Mrs. Morris has refused to name a member of the family to the committee, that is frustrating our efforts."
In the meantime, Mrs. Morris remains defiant that she wants the 'fund to be closed', and has written the J.T.A to that effect. According to her, she has been told that there is now $60,000 in the fund.
"I will manage. I have managed for two years, and the boys are doing their final exams for the second year, and they are doing well. I will manage, the J.T.A must just close the fund," Mrs. Morris said.
SONS AT MICO COLLEGE
In the meantime, Mr. Morris' sons, Junior, 23, Oneil, 22 (from an outside relationship), and Godfrey, 21, attend the Mico Teacher's College. Junior and Godfrey took the college matriculation exams only three days after their father died.
"I was sleeping that morning when he left for work, and I never saw him the rest of the day so I have no memory of him for that day, and that hurts most of all. Plus, he never got the chance to see me go to Mico, those guys just killed him," Junior said.
Newspaper reports suggest that the principal and other men had been playing dominoes when he was killed. Eyewitnesses say Mr. Morris ran, but was pursued by his attackers who stood over him and pumped several shots into his body. Morris' death set in motion a chain of events that led to the shooting deaths of seven young men by police in a house in Braeton Phase III less than 12 hours later.
"I miss him a lot, but we are trying to cope," Junior said.
The other children fathered by Mr. Morris are 26 year-old Karen (from an outside relationship), Zerodia, 24, and the youngest, 4 year-old Keithania.
Godfrey, Junior and Mrs. Morris are the christians of the family, and they worship at the Braeton Seventh Day Adventist Church. Godfrey became a Christian six months after his father's death.
"I always try to remember him in my own way, with the little things that he used to do," Godfrey said.
COLLEAGUES UPSET AT BRAETON
SEVEN COVERAGE
For the colleagues of Mr. Keith Morris, the most galling thing about the late principal's death is his near-anonymity, given the swirl of media coverage surrounding the controversial shooting deaths of the seven male youths in Braeton Phase III by the police in an alleged shootout.
Three of the seven young men were later linked to the March 13, 2001 murder of Keith Morris.
Ms. Denise Grant, a teacher of the Hartlands All Age school, was still a little peeved at what she called the 'media circus' around the deaths of the young boys.
"At one point, I stopped reading The Star because they had a daily thing about the Braeton Seven, but what about my Mr. Morris?" she said.
Another teacher, Ms. Paula Headley, expressed her disdain for the selective attention paid to cases by human rights groups like Families Against State Terrorism and Jamaicans For Justice.
"Where is the human rights movement for the families who have lost family members to gun violence? What about our pain? Our pain is always there. Maybe no one is pulling for us because there are just too many cases of violence, it is rare when you listen to the news and there are no deaths," she said.
All the teachers have fond memories of their association with Mr. Morris.
"He was more than just a principal of our school. He was a friend, a real father figure, and an adviser to all of us on staff here. If we had a problem, we could share it with him, and if he had a problem, he would share it with us. We would go on outings together, two Sundays before he died, we all went to the Centrestage theatre to see a play, and we would always go to see the Pantomime," Ms. Grant said.
"Everytime I see his emerald-green Daewoo which his son drives, I just get goose-pimples, and I keep expecting to see his face behind the wheel. It messes with your head. If my own biological father had died, I don't think I would have felt this pain as much," she continued.
She was in the eighth month of her pregnancy when she got the news that Mr. Morris had been murdered.
"It took me a while to get over it but Mr. Morris will not be forgotten. When I heard that the boys in Braeton had killed Mr. Morris, I wished I could have gone there to kill them myself. Really and truly, those boys should not have been killed that way, but I wanted them dead. I know that it is wrong to feel that way, but some of those boys killed someone we truly loved, and cared for," Ms. Grant said.
Since his death, Mr. Morris' position has been held by acting principal Mrs. Bernadine Wilson.
"Right now, the school is interviewing candidates for a principal, and we are hoping that Mrs. Wilson is successful because we have strived hard to keep the family atmosphere that Mr. Morris helped to create right here," Ms. Grant said.
