No Immediate solution as to how parents and COM will tackle investigation done by the Gendarmerie.
Cul de Sac:--- Several parents, elected officials and Collectivity workers spoke out about the issues at the Cul de Sac Elementary School at a meeting that was convened by the Collectivity and the National Inspectorate Daniella Dollium on Tuesday morning.
The Collectivity workers as well as the elected officials spent a lot of time dealing with how they handle the inscription of students that are registered to attend the Cul de Sac Elementary School, while it was said that only children of color are not allowed to attend the school there was one metropolitan parent who lived across from the school but she too could not get her child registered at the Cul de Sac Elementary and had to register her child at a private school where she is paying Euros 300.00 per month. The mother said that the COM referred her child to French Quarter School but she could not accept that school because she works in Marigot therefore she had to choose a private school for her daughter.
That mother demanded answers from the COM representatives because she wants to know why children from other areas gets a place in the school while children that were born on St. Martin and is residing in Cul de Sac does not have priority. The Collectivity representatives said that they do have a problem with students that has to attend maternal and petit enfant (Kindergarten classes) because the classrooms for those two classes can only accommodate 17 students. The COM representatives said that when they have more than 17 students registered then they have to go over to another system to select the students that will get a place in the Cul de Sac Elementary School. They said that the other system they use is to choose children that are born within a specific time period. "Those children that born before April 12th gets priority even if they do not live in Cul de Sac but has rights to attend Cul de Sac Primary." The mother then asked the COM to show the list of students they select to prove to the parents that they did not give priority to their friends or to persons who may have paid them monies to get a place because for her it is not normal that all 17 students that were registered were born during the month of January to April 11th since her daughter was born on April 12th and she did not get in the school. Another parent contested the explanations given by the COM because she is part of the parents association and knows that a certain class was lacking students and the COM refused to grant parents a space at the school because of the color of their skin. The Inspectorate Daniella Dollium also explained that she is the one that asked the Collectivity to respect the rules when inscribing students for those two classes because the two classrooms are very small.
RACISMS and Investigation conducted by Gendarmerie.
The meeting called on Tuesday morning was not as peaceful as one would expect because many parents contested the inscription topic the COM chose to discuss while the school was blocked on Friday because of the racism at the school and an investigation that is being conducted by the Gendarmerie. Most of the St. Martin (colored) parents felt that the investigation started because the metropolitans wants to get rid of the (colored directress) whom they said are working by the books and parents can no longer do as they feel but respect the rules of the school. Some of the parents gave their experience when they were called by the Gendarmerie with their child to be interrogated. They said that in most cases the Gendarmes did not tell them why they want to question their children and most of all when they go to the gendarmerie they are not allowed to go in with their child unless they insist. The parents said ever since this happened their children are having nightmares and they are fully traumatized when they see a gendarme. Besides all of that they said that the investigation is conducted by 10 gendarme, 6 of whom are part of the parents association.
Two parents said that they had incidents where metropolitan teachers abused an injured their children and they filed complaints with the gendarmerie and nothing was done with their complaint. They asked why now and who is behind the scheme to get rid of the director who is doing her best to ensure that all workers show up to work and students are treated equally. "I want to know who is behind this because my daughter hands was severely injured at the school by a teacher who slammed the door on her hands, I filed a complaint with the former director and the gendarmerie and I also went on the radio station with the issue and to this day nobody investigated my case. Besides that the teacher that injured my child would make sure she uses disinfectant on her hands when a child of color touch her." Another parent said that her son an asthmatic was flung out by a metropolitan teacher and nothing was done in that case either, the parent said that when that incident occurred the teacher told her point blank that she does not like "black people" because a black man gave her a sick child that eventually died. When the parent said that she annoyed a male metropolitan who asked her why she has to constantly raise that issue.
The mother whose child was corrected by the directress asked some key questions to the COM representatives and the Inspectorate. She said her child was corrected by the directress and when he went home he did not have any bruises or marks and she personally does not have a problem with the directress if she corrected her son. "I want to make clear that it's my son that was corrected. He had no bruises, no marks of violence and I did not go to the gendarmes and file any complaint, so I want to know who took my place and went to the gendarmes to file a complaint because they want to get rid of a 'black directress" the gendarmes tried to force me to file an official complaint against the directress and I made it clear to them that the directress is taking care of my child all day and if he needs to be corrected then she has all rights to do it. I need to know why someone else took my place to file a complaint and secondly I want to know why the gendarmes wants to force me to file a complaint." The mother remind the elected officials that the people of St. Martin elected them so they could sit on the chairs they are sitting on to represent the people of St. Martin.
The parents were even asked to stand up if they were there to support the directress who have become a target, it was clear that the workers and all the colored parents that attended the meeting went out to support the directress while seeking justice and equality.
Territorial Councilor Nadine Jermain Paines in her speech said she is in charge of five schools on the French side and whenever she enters Cul de Sac Elementary School she knows there is tension and racism in the school. The ambiance is totally different and everyone knows it here.She said that the metropolitan students do not mingle with the black or mixed students. "When you visit this school you see the metropolitan students in small groups by themselves, the colored students by themselves while those that are mixed do not mingle at all. We do have some grave issues here at Cul de Sac School that has to be addressed." Jermain Paines said she has a niece and a nephew attending Cul de Sac Elementary and one day her niece went home crying because a metropolitan child called her niece a monkey and told her she was smelling bad therefore she cannot sit with them. "My niece was crying she could not take the insults." Jermain Paines said this only happen last week and her relatives have to meet with the directress to discuss the matter. Jermain Paines also made clear that the directress of the school has her full support and she also has the support of the workers who have been insulted and abused for years by the metropolitan teachers, parents and students.
Territorial Councilor Domique Aubert also express her sentiments about what she has been hearing a while now about Cul de Sac Elementary School. Aubert said she is not there to take sides but what is being said is indeed a sad for St. Martin which is known as the Friendly Island. She said that it is not normal for Cul de Sac Elementary School to have 80% metropolitan students while these people are living on St. Martin. Aubert also made clear that those who wants to privatize the school should forget about that because Cul de Sac Elementary School is a public school.
When Aubert expressed her sentiments she made the metropolitans parents very uncomfortable because they simply could not face the truth and the reality of their behavior, some of them walked out of the meeting because they were told that what is happening at Cul de Sac Elementary is not acceptable and most of all their wishes to privatized the school will not happen. Aubert said that the COM will have to do something in order to regulate the inscription and to ensure that the school population becomes even with all nations living on the island and residing in the vicinity of Cul de Sac Elementary School.
Elected Officials needs to take action – What happen in the USA can happen on St. Martin?
A Collectivity worker called on the elected officials and the Collectivity to take immediate actions to normalize the situation because she has seen a lot. The worker even asked the Inspectorate to ensure that the students that were affected by the gendarmes and the workers that faced abuse for years get physiological assistance because she said what happened in the schools in the USA can well happen on St. Martin. "I am sounding the alarm we have a time bomb ticking and one day it will explode if nothing is done now."
Luc Wellington in an invited comment said that while there was no immediate solution to the problems they are facing at the Cul de Sac Elementary he do believe that the metropolitan parents and children will be more careful with their behavior because everyone managed to speak out during the meeting.
Click here to view more photos of Tuesday's meeting at the Cul de Sac Elementary School.
