Petrina Francis, Education Reporter
AUSTIN BURRELL, principal of Penwood High School in St. Andrew, was sentenced to 100 hours of community service last Friday in the Half-Way Tree Resident Magistrate's Court for assaulting one of his teachers.
Loanna Carty, science teacher at the school, told The Gleaner recently that the fight between the two began when the principal went to her classroom demanding that she attend a meeting.
She related that he also wanted the keys to the science department, where the meeting was to be held, because he did not have a key to gain entry. Mrs. Carty said she told him that she was going to lock up the classroom. She then went to the teacher's desk with the lock and keys in her hands and the principal followed her. An argument developed between the two and she said the principal grabbed and squeezed her hands.
DISCIPLINARY ACTION
But Mr. Burrell told The Gleaner recently that Mrs. Carty was the one who pounced on him and he had to restrain her by holding her hands.
It is still unclear whether the Ministry of Education will take any disciplinary action against Mr. Burrell.
"He has already been disciplined by the court so I don't know if there is any clause in the code for us to take any disciplinary action," Senator Noel Monteith, State Minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture, said yesterday.
However, he noted that if such a clause exists, the school board would then apprise the ministry on the matter.
Senator Monteith said when a communiqué is received from the board, the ministry would examine the details and seek advice from the Attorney-General, because a person is not usually punished twice.
