USVI judge and school principal at odds over student's re-admission

by Norman 'Gus' Thomas
Caribbean Net News Special Regional Correspondent

Saturday, November 27, 2004

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, USVI: Principal of the Ivanna Eudora Kean High School, Sharon McCollum-Rogers in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, spent Thanksgiving eve defending her decision not to comply with a judge's order to return a student to the school after the boy was arrested by police for "trashing" his mother's TV set. 

USVI territorial Judge Leon Kendall summoned the parties to determine if the St. Thomas educators, Insular Superintendent William Frett and McCollum-Rogers, could be held in contempt of court for not immediately returning a 17-year-old boy to his classroom following his absence from school for some eight weeks. 

Legal sources here told Caribbean Net News that at issue here is the specific nature of the order: that the school "shall immediately implement the student's classroom assignment." Instead, McCollum-Rogers and Frett created an educational plan for the boy in which he would receive tutoring and one-on-one instruction before returning to the regular classroom. 

The punishment for being in contempt of court ranges from a reprimand, to a fine, to jail time - or a combination of all three. Judge Kendall called the hearing for Wednesday afternoon - meaning that if Frett or McCollum-Rogers had been ordered into custody by Kendall, it would have been impossible to post bail until after the holiday. 

Under the threat of spending the national holiday locked in jail, McCollum-Rogers and Frett spent seven hours in a hearing at Territorial Family Court which finally ended at 11 o'clock Wednesday night. 

After hearing the testimony of the educators, Kendall postponed making a decision on whether to find the school administrators in contempt of court but Kendall ordered the boy to return to school immediately. 

It is not known if and how the judge's order will work; the boy currently is undergoing school disciplinary procedures on marijuana possession charges and has been suspended since school monitors searched his schoolbag on November 18 and reportedly found a small bag containing marijuana. 

The student's family has maintained his innocence and has charged that the marijuana was "planted" in the schoolbag. 

Kendall threw out the criminal charge of marijuana possession on the day of the arrest, saying there was no probable cause to search the student's schoolbag. 

The decision incurred the wrath of teachers who argued that, as teachers, they have probable cause to search a student's bag.

What will happen on Monday when school is back in session following the Thanksgiving break is anyone's guess. While Kendall has ordered the student to return to Kean, the school system is following its internal policy under which marijuana possession is grounds for suspension and possible expulsion. 

In Wednesday's seven-hour hearing, Kendall heard from half a dozen teachers and the student's mother and aunt, as well as McCollum-Rogers and Frett. 

The student was the center of three days of controversy and protests among the teachers and administration last month because Judge Kendall ordered him back to school against the principal's wishes after he was arrested October 13 on a destruction of property charge. 

Principal McCollum-Rogers disagreed with Kendall that the boy should be returned to school because she said that the boy never properly registered for the school year and that he was not a student subject to school suspension or other discipline. 

McCollum-Rogers stayed home from school for three days to protest the order, saying she was taking a stand for campus safety

 The school's 80 teachers walked out expressing strong support of McCollum-Rogers. School was canceled for three days, and the protest ended in a march to Government House. 

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