ROADTOWN Tortola BVI, June 29th, 2012 -- The British Virgin Islands High School (BVIHS) Class of 1992, would like to extend our gratitude to the faculty and staff of the Elmore Stoutt High School (ESHS) for allowing us the traditional honor of interacting and participating with this year’s graduates throughout the 2011-2012 school year.
These interactions were at all times positive and led to the development of relationships, through which we feel we have been able to mentor the students as well as stimulate their minds toward reaching their full potential.
Our participation in this year’s graduation activities has always been with the aim of supporting and recognizing the efforts of the hard-working graduates and their families. We never sought to use these activities for personal nor professional promotion; neither as individuals nor as a group.
It is primarily for this reason that we unanimously agreed not to respond until now to recent allegations and
misrepresentations regarding our role in this year’s graduation activities. And now that the youth of this community have been duly celebrated, we wish to continue being role models and examples to them by telling the truth.
The Class of 1992, as is customarily done by the 20 year reunion class for every BVIHS/ESHS graduation, began to organize to participate in this year’s graduation activities. In addition to fundraising for student prizes, we sought to make a more meaningful investment in the lives of the students by volunteering our time and efforts
to host a symposium which was held on June 18th at the Multipurpose Sports Complex.
We were also aware of the role we would have to play in the actual graduation exercises and went to great lengths to ensure that the process for selecting persons to participate in the graduation exercises was a democratic and fair process in which all class members (residing locally and abroad) who wished to participate were able to do so. Class members voted to select persons to serve as Chairperson, Keynote Speaker
and other roles for the graduation exercises.
The names of these persons were forwarded to the school’s administration as directed, five weeks before the
commencement date. The administration received these suggestions with favor, without hesitation and without any indication that the names submitted were inappropriate or undesirable.
On Saturday, June 23rd, five days before commencement, we were told that our class choice for Keynote Speaker, Mr. Bevis Sylvester would be unsuitable to fulfill the role he was democratically chosen to perform. The reasons for this impromptu position have still not been made clear to us.
After trying to ascertain the rationale for this decision and being subjected to what we deem to be distasteful, dishonest and draconian conduct, our class collectively and respectfully communicated our desire to relinquish any duties on graduation day outside of those that required direct interaction with the students; hence the decision was taken to only participate in the distribution of student awards.
The Class of 1992 stands resolutely by this decision in order to registerour collective displeasure for the manner in which we, adults and contributing members of this community were treated while also emphasizing our focus on the graduating students and their accomplishments.
During this entire experience, we, as representatives of our families, our alma mater (the BVI High School) and our community (the Virgin Islands), have made every effort to carry out our business in a professional and courteous manner. We sought to demonstrate to this year’s graduating students the importance of ideals such as industry, prudence, respect, integrity and more so forgiveness.
Perhaps both the Classes of 2012 and 1992, through this experience, have learned hard but valuable life lessons; but the Class of 1992 stands firmly on the ideals and principles that were instilled in us as students of the BVI High School, even if we are standing alone.
We wish the Elmore Stoutt High School Graduating Class of 2012 every success as they set forth on new journeys in education and/or employment, and we pray God’s continued blessings on our Virgin Islands.
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