Video footage of beatings circulate on social media
Chad Bryan, Staff Reporter
A video circulating on Facebook of a man believed to be the principal of a rural high school beating students for allegedly being late, has drawn condemnation from users of the social media website.
The video, which is a little over two minutes, shows the headmaster queuing up a number of students and beating them in their hand middle with a belt as they walk past him.
It is unclear how recent the video was, but it surfaced on December 6.
"Mi would tek off my belt and lick him back, bright!" commented one user. Another user commented: "Him don't even know if them eat. Sometimes the taxi and bus drivers don't want to carry kids and they are coming from far."
"I condemn this, he should be jailed, ministry says corporal punishment banned," another said.
Yet, another user commented: "Kmt. U mad! Dah principal deh brite". However, despite these comments, other Facebook users supported the action taken by the head of the school, citing that the principal was right in doing his job.
"Is doing a good job. If parents ... don't have a problem with it, y'all need to be silent.," said the head boy of the class of 2009.
When the school was contacted, the principal was out of office and our news team was referred to one of the school's vice-principals who said he was not aware of the video.
"I can't recall any day when this happened. I am going to have to check on Facebook to find out. I am not aware of the video. It is only on special occasions that beatings are done. I am not aware of any beatings which took place in recent times," he said.
The committee on the Rights of a Child, General Comment No. 8, paragraph 11 defines corporal punishment, among other things, to be any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however, light. Most involves hitting ('smacking', 'slapping', 'spanking') children, with the hand or with an implement such as a whip, stick, belt, shoe, wooden spoon, etc.
Corporal punishment has been banned in local schools.
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