Catholic Teaches Discuss Equal Opportunities Bill at Bi-Annual Conference
More than five hundred teachers from eleven Catholic high schools countrywide today gathered at the Saint Catherine Auditorium for a Catholic Educators Conference. The conference is the culmination of Catholic week where educators come together to share ideas, concerns, and solutions that teachers face on a daily basis. This year, the teachers were grasped by a presentation given by attorney Richard “Dickie” Bradley on the Equal Opportunities Bill. Pallottine Sister Clara Teul says it is important for the teachers to be familiar with the Bill.
Clara Teul
Clara Teul, Pallottine Sister
“Every two years we have different themes were we work with our team. This year we have catholic schools. We talk about lead, learn, serve and succeed. That is the whole idea of what we are about that we prepare our children for the world. The common issue we know right now that is challenging our country, that is plaguing our country I would say is immorality, values. It is no more as once upon a time. There is a lot of broken families. So the challenges we see in the classrooms with our children, you know more and more you find students being disrespectful, not caring about education. So we still try to nurture by trying to care for them spiritually, putting god first. The first teacher is Jesus Christ himself. I think those are the challenging, especially with these challenging moments with all these bills that are passing. The purpose of the conference is to educate teachers to be well equipped to go back to the classrooms. For example, with his Equal Opportunities Bill, I think our educators need to know more about how we will be preparing ourselves for this bill.”
Richard “Dickie” Bradley
Richard “Dickie” Bradley, Attorney-at-law
“From a legal point of view the drafting of many of the sections, they are disturbing. Lawyers tend to be concerned about things that say, any law which says that a person has no right to appear before the Equal Opportunity Commission when they are dealing with a matter affecting that person. That is actually anathema to lawyers and to the courts. Everybody has a right to be heard. The propose law says there is no right to be heard. In fact it says that they don’t want lawyers to come to the commission. They may decide if they want lawyers but you don’t have a right to take a lawyer with you. Even criminals have a right to take lawyers to court to assist them in presenting their side to the story. It is also saying that once you go to the Court of Appeal that is final. You can’t go in the case of the Caribbean Court of Justice and there are many other sections that are troubling to lawyers.”
