Hampton Board Slaps Reid, Doesn’t Support Murray Going on Leave

Jamaica Observer
January 17, 2017

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Hampton-Board-slaps-Reid--doesn-t-support-Murray-going-on-leave_86877

Ruel Reid (File photo)

The Hampton School Board has delivered a slap to the face of Education Minister Ruel Reid, stating that it does not support Principal Heather Murray going on leave, as indicated by the minister last week.

The board also made reference to a January 13 letter from Reid, saying that it did not reflect an accurate outline of the key decisions and agreements made in a meeting on January 11 between the minister, the board and Murray.

“At no time was the issue of the Child Care and Protection Act mentioned or raised,” Board Chairman Trevor Blake stated in a January 16 letter to Reid.

“There could never have been any agreement that the action of Mrs Murray was inconsistent with the principle of the Act, and we categorically refute that assertion,” Blake said.

He said the proposal that Murray should proceed on two weeks’ leave, as of January 16, was Reid’s, and “did not receive the endorsement of representatives of the board and the Munro and Dickenson Trust then, nor does it now”.

Blake argued that to send Murray on leave would raise serious legal concerns.

Last Wednesday, Reid had issued a press release after the meeting, stating that Murray would proceed on two weeks’ leave, starting on January 16, “during which time she is expected to complete a formal report to the school board and the Munro and Dickenson Trust about her actions outside the [St Elizabeth Parish] Court where she said she had gone to support a friend, who is the wife of a man accused of sexual abuse”.

Murray attracted a lot of public flak after she appeared at the court on the day that Moravian pastor Rupert Clarke was being arraigned on rape and carnal abuse charges, then tried to block a television videographer from recording him leaving the court.

She has since apologised.