Family complains about lashing at Biscayne school

Spare the rod and spoil the child. The debate over corporal punishment has been with us for decades if not centuries … and most of us who grew up in Belize have our favourite stories of student lashings. Tonight News Five’s Jacqueline Woods rekindles the controversy with a report from Biscayne Village that, from all accounts, is replicated regularly at schools across the country.

Leonora Smith, Grandmother
?Well when I see ih hand it mi swell up bad. The hand mi swell up and like it mi di bleed and all and she mi di scream, she said she can?t stand her hand. So I mean, I said man, why she had to do that. Why she have to burst her hand like this. Then when I ker ah and even di show her, she noh even want see it because she say that dah lie.?

Robert Sinclair, Father
?I steady the send her ma to go talk to the principal and the principal say, sorry about it, it won?t happen again over and over and over.?

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Leonora Smith, her son-in-law, Robert Sinclair, and his daughter seven year old, Zandlee Sinclair, are alleging that in February the child?s school principal Dorla Wade injured the infant two student after the girl fought with a classmate at the Biscayne Government Primary School. Smith says following the incident, she went to the school to speak with Wade about the matter, but claims the principal was rude to her.

Leonora Smith
?I just gone in a calm way and tell ah good afternoon. She said, come in and then I tell ah, look at Zandlee hand. I said, what happened Miss Wade? She said, well she had to discipline Zandlee because Zandlee beat up one of the lee girls them, so that?s why, and she said she had to discipline Zandlee. So I tell her, but that dah noh the way. She said, I noh wah negotiate nothing, she said case close, go to the Ministry of Education if you want, do anything you want. And she turned away and walk gone.?

Young Sinclair, who says she was in a lot of pain, talked about why she was disciplined.

Zandlee Sinclair, Student, Biscayne Government School
?The lee gyal boom me with a piece of paper and then I boom ah right back.?

Jacqueline Woods
?And then what happened? You were taken to your principal?s office??

Zandlee Sinclair
?No, the one of the next pickney tell.?

Jacqueline Woods
?And then what, the principal came to your classroom??

Zandlee Sinclair
?Then when she me di pass and then she beat me with a fat stick.?

Sinclair says he had no choice but to report the incident to the authorities. The Ladyville police described the injuries as a swelling on left thumb and left index finger and a small cut on left index finger. The family took the medical form to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where the doctor classified the child?s injuries as wounding.

Leonora Smith
?She said Zandlee liad. And I said, no but she is noh lie because the proof deh right there. She said, she liad; that there long time. I told her no, Zandlee was sick for two weeks, she never gone to school with chicken pox and she never had nothing in her hand, nothing. That just happen.?

Sinclair says he intends to pursue the matter legally because he claims it is not the first time that one of his children have been excessively disciplined at the school.

Robert Sinclair
?Well it has to go to the court because last year October she had my next daughter Cheyenne hand swell right up. She couldn?t goh dah school for three days because she couldn?t even move her hand I left it like that because I said I noh want them to take it out of my pickney. So I just left it like that as a father. And then the lee girl stayed home, miss school three days because she can?t even write with her hand and now she started on this one again.?

Today News Five visited the school. Principal Wade, who declined to be interviewed on camera, denied causing any injuries to the student and says she does not want to discuss the case. When we showed her the medical report, Wade again denied wounding the child. We did contact the Ministry of Education who told us that they received a complaint but were awaiting a report from the Human Services Department to complete their investigation and until that time, they could not comment. Jacqueline Woods for News Five.

The Sinclair family says they were thinking of transferring their children to another school, but because of the long distance the move would be difficult.