By SANCHESKA BROWN
Tribune Staff Reporter
sbrown@tribunemedia.net
RETIRED ANGLICAN Archbishop Drexel Gomez said yesterday he is “very concerned” about the Anglican Church and its future involvement in education after parents of St John’s students filed a law suit against the Anglican School.
His comments came after Christina Galanos, the lawyer representing a portion of students, confirmed that a summons was sent starting a legal effort to retrieve the graduation fees parents had paid, but were not refunded.
The Anglican Central Education Authority cancelled the graduation ceremony and prom of St John’s College amidst allegations of “impudent acts” by students.
The graduation was scheduled to take place on June 18 at 10am at Holy Trinity Church and the Emerald Ball (the school’s prom) was scheduled for Monday, June 24, at the Sheraton Hotel.
Archbishop Gomez said it is unfortunate that the situation has come this far, but said both the students and the school have a right to defend themselves.
“Well the whole matter is unfortunate especially when it is necessary for people to seek redress in the court and it places the church in an adverse role where the church wouldn’t normally want to be. But people have rights and they are entitled if they feel they are not being treated properly, they have a right to seek redress in the courts. I would hope that all of that could have been avoided,” he said.
“I really don’t know enough about the actual details to comment as to whether or not the parents went too far, but I do know that parents and students have rights and the church has rights and the equation of measuring them in terms of how the church makes a stand on what it considers to be moral outrage, what will be the appropriate way of dealing with the outrage. I am very concerned about the church and the school and the future of our involvement in education and it is a pity that this conduct, which was really outrageous, has come to the centre and caused such a disturbance.”
Archbishop Gomez said while he had no hand in the decision, the church has a right to express its moral concerns.
He said: “The church and every institution has a right to express moral outrage and in a country where we have so many young people, we have to call the young people to some sort of order and have them to understand there is behaviour that is not appropriate, not in private or public. We have to stand for standards and help people to appreciate the importance of standards in building a sensible community.”
“If in the future this is the way that matters are going to be handled then it means taking another trajectory than we have taken up in the past. This will be the first time that the school system is being put in court and I wouldn’t want to see a repetition of that.”
Comments
Girly 10 years, 10 months ago
Well they better revise their rules and regulations before something like this happens again!
banker 10 years, 10 months ago
Or, if you don't agree that the church has final authority over the school, then don't attend. Go somewhere else.
Girly 10 years, 10 months ago
Amen!
TalRussell 10 years, 10 months ago
For the school to have punished the entire graduating classes, resulting from the actions of but a few, is dictatorial. If the teachers at SJC couldn't mold the behavior of students who have been sitting in their classrooms for some 16 years, why would the good Bishop Boyd think the cancellation of the SJC 2013 prom will act as some lasting students social-psychological determinant, for all future SJC students, yet to follow? Something is grossly wrong over at SJC, when students and their beloved school are battling each other before the courts. What's next. Will the students fly off to England to petition the head of the school's church, Queen Elizabeth? Besides I never knew monies collected from students for prom night was to be considered the monies of a school? Some things in life just ain't right. This is one of them things that is being stretched way beyond common sense. And, it's now before the already too damn busy courts?
Maybe Bishop Boyd should consider the school's own failure over the past 16 years. Some'tin went wrong all these student years.
by TalRussell
PracticeWhatYouPreach 10 years, 10 months ago
This situation speaks to a general lack of leadership and much worse, a display of a most "un-Christian-like" attitude by the ACEA and Anglican Bishop. Even Pontius Pilot sought to offer Jesus a "fair trial" and some sort of justice when the "then" church leaders/high priest sought to "railroad" him. This situation at St. Johns reminds me of that same arrogance and self righteousness. A proper review of all of the facts and a bent toward fairness, kindness, forgiveness and communion by a church leader could have resulted in the dissipation of the situation. Instead his authoritarian and abusive posture evoked a most defensive reaction of disbelief and outrage.
The (individuals) students that would have offended the School and Church with their actions should have been punished. And even then, the punishment should have been in a manner that preserved dignity of those young people. It was a teaching moment for the church and school and they missed it. Under no circumstances should the innocent be punished for the guilty, this robs one of a sense of self and the knowledge that if "I" do the right thing and abide by the "law" that same law will protect me from "lawlessness" at the hands of anyone (regardless of the office that they may hold).
I may be "out on a limb" here but I feel that Bishop Gomez would have handled this better, I am not an Anglican but from my observations he comes across as more rational individual. I hope that someone reading this can mention to Bishop Gomez that "blessed are the peacemakers" and perhaps he may want to reach out to the parents and students and offer to broker not only a "non-legal" solution but more importantly healing.
concernedcitizen 10 years, 10 months ago
we all cry about spare the rod ,lets hang murderers etc ,,bring back old time values ,and then when someone disicplines our arrogant ,rude ,and increasingly dangerous lil darlings we get up in arms ,,I dated a costa rican teacher that was brought in to teach /spanish /french at C R WALKER .On parent teacher day she was telling a parent about their childs behavour , a Bahamian teacher told her for her safety not to tell the parents their kid is bad ..i asked her surely you have "urban kids in costa rica " she said the difference is the kids in c/r are not as arrogant and you can reach them ,,in nassau she said basically the hatians kids are the ones you can teach ...we as Bahamians have an unearned sense of pride when a good amount of our good fortune comes from Castro taking Cuba and the U/S embargo ..
wave 10 years, 10 months ago
It is very clear that the church took their little slice from the prom expense and now they refuse to return what is not theirs. Were there actions wrong, maybe. Should there prom be cancelled, no. The so called “man of the cloth” just decided to flex his muscle and punish everyone. I’m thinking there’s a few control issues with this man!
TalRussell 10 years, 10 months ago
Comrade i also could provide you with a long list of countries where if one member of a family offends the ruling powers, all members of their family are arrested and jailed. SJC is acting like some junta, except its a high school led by a committee of punish all students, for the actions of but a few. Pretty similar in their actions. Right? Again, since when can a school pocket prom monies? Parents, not underage children, paid SJC for prom night. Even if the prom was canceled and contracts had to be paid, this was a decision made solely by SJC, not the parents, and they alone must be held financially responsible for payments for unused services to the respective suppliers. In fact, the media seems be reporting that the school didn't want to even hear from the parents? Maybe their unwillingness to communicate with parents is a clear sign that hey might have done a poor job communicating with some of their students, during the16 years they had them in their classrooms?
banker 10 years, 10 months ago
I love your "Comrade Shtick". My Twitter followers think that it is hilarious. But getting on topic, the school system was never a democracy. Teachers ruled. The whole idea was learning through discipline and obedience -- something that most Bahamian youth do not have. In my day, the teacher's word was the rule, and if you disobeyed, you were punished. It was the social paradigm and it instilled law and order in the school and in the fabric of Bahamian society. Societal institutions such as the church, and the church run schools can operate in whatever way they wish, and if you don't like it, vote with your feet -- leave. Too many of our young people think that laws and rules are for other people, and the Ten Commandments are the Ten Suggestions. It's about time that these young people learned collectively that there is always a higher authority in life that must be obeyed. And our parliamentarians will eventually learn that as well.
concernedcitizen 10 years, 10 months ago
for every action there is a counter action ,,irresponsability cannot produce responsability ,,..i remember once at assembly some of us were cutting up ,,we were all made to stand in the sun until the culprits ,which i was one ,owned up ..these lil rascals don,t even have the decency to own up so their peers can have a graduation ,,,and their parents have the nerve to sue ,my daddy would be whuppin me until i owned up or told him who did the wrong all the while telling me i owed him 300 bucks ,,i hope the court lets the school keep the money ,,a hard lesson is usually a lesson learned,,
TalRussell 10 years, 10 months ago
My Dear Comrade while you made good points to consider, yet you loosely used words like freedom and responsibility. You seem to assume they are words of lessons to be learned. I find this poor logic with lots of ambiguities.
concernedcitizen 10 years, 10 months ago
Thanks for showing me how to spell responsibility ,,,i was having trouble spelling it ..I don,t recall mentioning freedom ,,
banker 10 years, 10 months ago
Amen. That was my school experience exactly. With kids raising kids, we have a couple of generations of poorly socialized children who thinks that the world revolves around them. Stand fast Bishop.
wave 10 years, 10 months ago
I am old enough and wise enough to understand how the religious origination operates, not to mention a uncle of mine who was a priest for 8 years. After seeing the true workings of the roman catholic operations, he opted to remove himself and resigned. This power controlling man took his slice from the prom funds by picking the venue or any other part to this even and justified his cut that way.
TalRussell 10 years, 10 months ago
Comrade I took license to take your range of many words, to represent two, with injecting my "freedom" to represent the best shade of your attempt at rebuffing my own words.
The_Oracle 10 years, 10 months ago
Bad premises abound here, I think the school would be justified if they can show that not a single one of the kids in that graduating class was a good student or that every one of them was involved in whatever caused the general "Smoting" If they can, then I'd be looking for a general refund of all fees paid!
However, schools have become very adept at nickel and diming parents and students alike over and above School and book fees. Follow the money! Theft is theft, accepting the funds amounts to a contract. An unfulfilled contract in this case.
TalRussell 10 years, 10 months ago
Comrade Banker I presume you have some form of evidence to demonstrate that the 2013 "poorly socialized" graduating students at SJC, have been busy raising their out-of-wedlock kids? .
blueothello 10 years, 10 months ago
This is not just about the money. This is about the grade 12 students overall bad attitude and poor behaviour, which has been less than dignified over the final year; those videos were the last straw. It is simplistic to say that the good are being punished for the bad; those supposed innocent students knew everything that was going to happen, did nothing to stop any of it, and then covered it up by refusing to tell who did what by saying "I ain't no snitch".
Remember, the worst ones aren't the ones who commit the acts, they're the ones who stand by and let it happen. If they knew about it, and say nothing, they're just as guilty. When the majority of these grade 12 students skipped school one day, no one could tell me that those who came to school were clueless and didn't know what was going on; or when they set their phones to go off, it was just the people concerned who did it, and no one else in the grade knew what was going to happen, right?
All the school has to prove is that students took part in, or had knowledge of the various acts committed. Any grade 12 student who was absent on that day that had the sick-out; participated, or was in the video; the setting of phones to go off in mass; the bullying and intimidation of others over food should be dealt with including those student leaders who should still be stripped of their positions of authority. The head boy and girl, and all prefects should have lost their positions for their involvement and/or knowledge of the actions that took place.
From my understanding, this was a grade that was extremely rude, showed gross insubordination to, and had a general lack of respect for teachers. It seems that at the end they started to believe they were bigger and better than what they were. This decisive action was needed to bring them back to earth, and to show them that there are consequences for their actions.
It is easy to blame the teachers because the assumption is that they are the ones to instill the values and attitudes in these students. With all due respect, the parents are the ones to do that; the teachers and the school can only try and reinforce positive values and attitudes. These students are representative of their own parents behaviours, attitudes and values.
This problem falls directly onto the heads of this lacklustre and impotent administration; the principal, the v.p. the senior mistress, senior master and the priest. It is a travesty that not one of these so-called leaders will be sanctioned for the mess they helped to bring about through the non support of teachers in the discipline of students. Most of these students have been in a system where there have been little or no consequences for their actions throughout their time there, and felt entitled to everything no matter what they did. The school, and by extension the ACEA, is now reaping what it has sown.
banker 10 years, 10 months ago
Excellent cogent response and reasoning regarding the bystanders who are just as guilty as those who did it. Bravo for your enlightenment.
However, I disagree that it is the teachers fault. My cousin was a teacher's aide at a primary school for awhile. The students at that age (9,10,11), in his words were incorrigible monsters who were poorly socialized, largely unsupervised in their home life, and lacking discipline in both thought and action. Not only are they a lost generation, but they are mirrors of their parent generation, who threatened physical violence on those teachers who dare to punish their little darlings.
Given such raw material (where several social agencies have determined that up to 75% of Bahamian children do not have an active, biological father in the household and an 80% probability that their siblings are half siblings), then there is little that the hapless teachers can do. They cannot re-socialize the children, or instill discipline that should have been inculcated at an early early age. The raw material that the teachers have to work with, is inferior due to the current social fabric of the society producing those children.
The problem is a lot larger than most people think, and it is not easily correctable in the near future.
Bahamianpride 10 years, 10 months ago
Punnish the kids u damned, don't punnish the kids u damned. Ultimately life punnishes bad behavior, the school would get an apology from me if my kid was a part of this.. However the school has to return whatever refundable portion of the graduation money is left because when u book and cancel venues they sometimes hold some of deposit for late cancellations.. We have become a litigious society Welcome to the united states of the Bahamas
Rontom 10 years, 10 months ago
It's bigger than the refunds. Just read the article again and hear the prescient words from the bishop Gomez: he is spot and and pretty much indicating that the ensuing lawsuit WILL damage the diocese financially, all because of a brash and unwise decision by someone whose position requires reserved judgment and methodical execution. Now the school and the church are faced with real legal exposure and it will effect operations. And I think Bishop Gomez too is reaching out to the parents and the attorney Galanos NOT to take this to court for the sake of the school and more importantly, the Church. I would not be surprised if there aren't urgings for Gomez to intercede. And any reasonably thinking person could have seen what was at stake here and try to out this flame. It's all fine talk about the rude children and the need to punish them ALL for what they apparently did. So now every employer in this country knows that the class of 2013 from SJC are a rotten bunch because that's the image we are left with. So there goes scholarships, there goes apprenticeships, there goes the whole lot's future. That can't be fair. And the dollar value placed on that will be premium by the parents. This is really madness. The first thing that needs to happen is a conciliatory voice reaching out to the parents. Hopefully, Bishop Gomez has initiated this process.
TalRussell 10 years, 10 months ago
Comrade Bishop Boyd can best be described as the school head with a "bunker mentality" who "neglected his good behavior" graduating students. Who neglected these same students when he refused to hear anything their parents had to say. Where does it state that it's leadership to punish the innocent along with the guilty, guilty according to his interpretation? How in the hell does canceling a high school's prom, prepare students to meet their new challenges which lie ahead, whether it be in furthering their education or entering the workplace? Comrades regardless of what excuses the Bishop comes up with, his abrupt cancellation of prom night lacks the actions of a reasonable school head. Thankfully, it appears that the relationships between SJC teachers and students was a damn site better than what it is today between the students and their parents and the not so good right about now, bishop.
Amen!
Rontom 10 years, 10 months ago
The plaintiff rest! Good job Tal.
Bahamianpride 10 years, 9 months ago
Rontom/tal..the problem I have with all of this is the matter is not being address from a perspective of education.. discipline and forgiveness is a part of educating young people.. if u guys said these students sent a letter of apology to the school & the bishop for there conduct & asked for forgiveness, I would say they've accepted responsibility and learned from the situation.. Lets all pray about this give them a ceremony and lets move on.. But this sense of entitlement regardless of actions, troubles me.. I am beyond the X & Os of legalities and money but more interested in educating the young people.. Young people from SJC ask the church and school for forgiveness without parents and lawyers and ask hummbly for re-instatement of your ceremony... if the church reject that then issue should be with the church, because of conflict with religious teachings..
Rontom 10 years, 9 months ago
As an Anglican and a fellow SJC graduate, and knowing the inner workings of the Synod, I can tell you that the ubrupt cancellation of the ceremony was a mistake. You are condemning all of these with extreme prejudice. I can tell you that the Church is not perfect (less we go down that road again where it was found complicit in the abuse of children by their very own). The point is sir, we live in a country under the Rule of Law, not of Man, nor of Religion. And as Bishop Gomez said, everyone has Rights.
Bahamianpride 10 years, 9 months ago
RONTOM: LEGALLY you are right.. in those regards all churches should get out of the business of education.. But based on your argument if I impose rules and discipline on my kids at home, I must first consider there legal rights, we don't own our kids and they do have rights.. if u hit your kid with a belt are u now guilty of assault or if u ground your kid are u now guilty of kidnapping...Now do you see what road we are heading down.. in any event regardless of outcome or opinion I respect the respectful nature of the discussion..
Rontom 10 years, 9 months ago
Yes, you are correct: we are exactly on that road: there is a legal way to punish your child(ren). You may not deprive your child of protected Rights and call it your punishment. It is regrettable to have this play out as it has in the Courts where nobody wins.
Bahamianpride 10 years, 9 months ago
The best business decision for the church and school is to re-enstate graduation lets move on
Girly 10 years, 9 months ago
The final analysis is for the school to review their rules and regulations before this happens again.Have a lawyer fine tune every letter,every word every sentence and every paragraph.Put this big book of rules in the front of each parent when they bring their precious I can do no wrong gems to enroll and make each and everyone of them read and re read again and then sign.
TalRussell 10 years, 9 months ago
Church operated schools from a number if denominations have played an important role in our Bahamaland and many of us in the thousands have been welcomed with loving hearts and tender hands into their classrooms, without regard if our parents were of like-minded faith or not. The original motivation behind church based schools was for the purpose of educating the poor. How is Bishop Boyd responding to the poor, if he refuses to honor the prom contract, entered into between SJC and his students parents?
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