Court will decide if teacher harmed student

The corporal punishment of children is always a controversial issue with traditional disciplinarians lined up against a supposedly more enlightened generation of parents. This week the debate has moved from the theoretical to the practical as the case of Clifford White, principal and schoolteacher at Belize Christian Efforts Foster Home, is being heard in Magistrates’ Court. White is accused of beating up on an eleven year old girl who resides at the facility, located in Flowers Bank Village. The child alleges that on March twenty-eighth of this year White told her to go behind the building and tuck in her blouse and tie her shoelaces. She said she explained that her laces were loose to ease the tension from calluses on her feet. She said she turned to go fix her blouse and it is then that White grabbed her by her shirt collar, choked her, threw her against the wall and punched her in the left side of the stomach. Prosecutor in the case, Sergeant Clinton Magdaleno, today succeeded in getting an adjournment in order to locate a missing witness, teacher Kenisha Rhaburn, who reportedly picked up the child after the alleged assault. Magistrate Aretha Ford adjourned the case until September twenty-fourth. A medical doctor had classified the injuries as Harm, which is the charge White is facing. His defence attorney is Michael Peyrefitte.