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Posted: Thursday 3 July, 2014 at 3:04 PM

The Persecution Of Mrs. Carlene Morton

By: James McCall, Press Release
    July 3rd 2014 - The BHS health fiasco has morphed into something else these days. However, before we look at what it has become, let’s go back a bit.  

    The alarm that something was amiss, started to be sounded some time back in 2012 but no one who had the wherewithal, did anything about it.  In the meantime, whatever was wrong was being allowed all the time it needed to fester and become worse, and it was only when teachers and students started to present themselves to doctors and other health facilities with symptoms that threatened their wellbeing, did anyone take the matter even remotely seriously.

    I recall a statement being made by Minister Nigel Carty, about Dr. Thelma Phillip Browne, a qualified medical practitioner of many years’ standing, as if to suggest that her concerns, after having seen some patients herself, were steeped in politics; that she had an ulterior motive.  This attempted sleight effectively diverted attention away from the problem that was still fermenting, and worsening, at the school. 

    I further recall that Minister Carty mentioned that some of the persons who complained of symptoms were being psychosomatic.  Now, that is a big word so let me break it down instead of asking you to resort to your dictionary.  Some illnesses are, in fact, derived from, say, stress.  One of those would be an ulcerated stomach meaning simply that there are sores in the stomach.  Hypertension is another disorder that can be brought on by stress.  The question is, what was it that qualified Minister Carty to make such a judgment call in respect of the symptoms that the students and teachers of the school had presented with? 

    Needless to say, the net result of the blame game was that the matter remained unresolved, and worsened.  In the final analysis, however, the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute was called in.  They came, did their tests and made a report available to the government.  The members of the Parent-Teachers Association (PTA) of the school asked for an opportunity to read the report but Minister Carty slighted them, too suggesting that they would not have been able to understand it.

    No one knows what expertise the government was able to coopt for the purpose of understanding the report but, as time went on, they set about rectifying the problem, supposedly following the guidelines set out in CARIRI’s 10-point recommendation. I heard Minister Carty say that government spent over five million dollars.  However, I later learned that not all of the ten points were adhered to.  This could mean that the expert advice was insufficient or that government chose to play a mix-and-match game with the recommendations, instead of going with them all.  

    The old saying is: “WITH A LITTLE BIT OF PUTTY AND PAINT, THE DEVIL CAN LOOK JUST LIKE A SAINT” As such, while the affected areas of the school looked fine with recent daubs of paint and whatever else was repaired or replaced, the problem came back and had as much of an effect on the students and teachers as it did before.  Now, it can be argued that the problem may have returned whether or not the ten points had been adhered to but, the mere fact that the points were not all adhered to, means that government lost its right to make that argument.

    Let’s fast-forward to what I really want to discuss.  In an article posted on WINN FM’s website on April 29th, 2014 (http://winnfm.com/news/local/8163-principal-stands-with-teachers-as-union-snubbed-by-ministry), it was reported that the principal of the school, Mrs. Carlene Morton, excused herself from a meeting of “…the stakeholders…”.  That meeting had been arranged by the Ministry of Education but, strangely enough, excluded the St. Kitts Teachers Union (SKTU), a group that had thitherto been quite vocal in its advocacy against the conditions under which its members were being required to work; and being a body of teachers, would have been concerned for the welfare of the students as well.

    Mrs. Morton is the General Secretary of the SKTU but she did not attend that meeting in that capacity; instead, she was there as principal of the Basseterre High School.

    As to the reason for refusing to invite the SKTU to the meeting has never been ventilated but one has to admire Mrs. Morton for the principled stand she took by refusing to remain.  Had she remained, she would have slighted the body of which, as I said before, she is the current General Secretary. Given her relationship with the SKTU and its involvement in the matter from an early stage, she would have been standing on rather weak moral grounds, had she remained.  She would have effectively given carte blanche and sanction to the government’s blatant disregard of an important stakeholder such as the SKTU.

    So, now, for refusing to betray her union by attending a meeting from which it was excluded, Mrs. Carlene Morton has been called to a disciplinary hearing before the Civil Service Commission.

    Here are some strange facts:
    1. Minister Carty and the government broke no rules when they ignored the concerns for almost two years
    2. Minister Carty and the government broke no rules by casting aspersions upon Dr. Thelma Phillip-Browne
    3. Minister Carty and the government broke no rules by suggesting that the symptoms the teachers and students suffered were psychosomatic
    4. Minister Carty and the government broke no rules by being condescending, and by slighting the PTA of the school when it was suggested that they were not smart enough to understand the CARIRI report
    5. Minister Carty and the government broke no rules when they ignored portions of CARIRI’s recommendation and did pretty much what they chose to do

    However, Mrs. Carlene Morton, a teacher for more than three decades, is being regarded as having had the audacity to refuse to allow the government to disregard the union of which she is a ranking member.   
     
    The government has handled the BHS situation very badly from the very onset so, now, they seek to glean some modicum of salvation by persecuting this most humble human being for doing the right thing.  However, I hope that they are considering with whom they are trifling.  
     
     
     
     
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