Dismissal of Morant Bay High principal upheld

The Teacher's Appeal Tribunal has upheld the dismissal of Dr Dalton Shaw as principal of Morant Bay High School.

He was fired by the school board in December 2020.

An emergency board meeting was held on March 3, 2020 where issues were raised concerning Shaw.

The issues included that both the school improvement plan and the Students Handbook were not executed by Shaw, as well as various meetings with both senior and general staff. Further that Shaw had caused an outburst and disrupted a board meeting by his abrupt departure and also refused to answer specific queries from the board about his management of the school.

The chairman of the school board sent a formal letter of complaint against the appellant, dated March 10, 2020, to the school board. The letter requested the board's investigation into the management of the school and Shaw's conduct.

The Personnel Committee met on July 22, 2020, reviewed the matter and agreed to recommend to the board the following charges: Neglect of duty, namely the lack of school improvement plan since 2018; the Students Handbook; unsupervised classes; inefficiency; the infrequency of staff meeting; professional misconduct in relation to his outburst at the board meeting; and lack of support to the PTA.

Shaw was informed in a letter on July 6, 2020 of the charges.

The Personnel Committee met virtually in December 2020 and decided that the charges against Shaw were proven. A recommendation was made to the school board, which, on December 11, 2020, upheld the recommendation and fired Shaw.

Shaw appealed to the tribunal, contending that certain breaches took place and he suffered the consequences of apparent bias and a fair hearing was compromised.

It was argued by Queen's Counsel Andre Earle that the Personnel Committee acted as a judge in its own cause and did not afford Shaw a fair hearing.

Chairman of the school board, Reverend Christine Gooden-Benguche, was the respondent and was represented by attorneys-at-law Bertram Anderson and Dionne Jackson-Miller, who argued that there was no real possibility of bias after considering all the facts of the matter.

The tribunal found last month that there was no merit in the grounds advanced on behalf of Shaw.

“Acting on the principles set out in the Education Regulations, 1980, it cannot be said that the respondent was in error in any aspect of the procedure followed in arriving at its decision,” the tribunal ruled.

“The appeal is therefore dismissed.”

- Barbara Gayle

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