JTA president hits back, says Education Minister was told about school shelter allegations

Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President Mark Malabver has clapped back at critics questioning his reports of shelterees committing sexual acts while occupying school-based shelters, declaring that he informed Education Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon about the situation as soon as he received the allegations.

Addressing Thursday’s final day of the JTA’s 2026 education conference at the Princess Grand Hotel in Hanover, Malabver said he was disappointed with the Ministry of Education’s calls for him to name the schools where such incidents have reportedly taken place, arguing that such calls are a diversion from the need to remove shelterees from schools months after Hurricane Melissa’s passage on October 28.

“The JTA has raised clear, documented, and repeated concerns regarding the use of school compounds as shelter facilities while those same spaces are being used for teaching and learning. These concerns were formally communicated to the relevant state authorities, including the Ministry of Education, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, and the Ministry of Local Government. These were not speculative; they were grounded in credible reports, professional judgment, and the association’s unambiguous responsibility to act where risk is identified,” said Malabver.

“Let it also be stated without ambiguity that I, Mark Malabver, have personally raised concerns with the Minister of Education [Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon] during a telephone conversation around March 17 or 18. During that conversation, colleagues, I told the Minister of Education that the reports we were receiving were true, that they violated the Child Care and Protection Act, and the Minister’s response was, ‘Tell them to report it to the police,’” Malabver added.

Malabver previously made the revelation about the reports of inappropriate conduct by shelterees while addressing the start of the JTA’s conference earlier this week.

Following that bombshell, the Ministry of Education issued a statement calling for the JTA to share whatever details it had about those reports, including dates and locations where the alleged incidents reportedly took place.

- Christopher Thomas

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