PUBLIC Defender Arlene Harrison Henry yesterday released a scathing report on the sacking of the head girl at St Hilda’s Diocesan High School, stating that the 16- year-old was subjected to inhumane and raw discriminatory treatment by the principal, and recommended that the student be reappointed to the position.

Harrison Henry also recommended that school board meets and makes the appointment, and that “acts of discrimination by virtue of religious denomination be investigated by the school board”.

Yesterday afternoon, the child’s mother, Rhonda Clarke, said she was happy with the public defender’s ruling. “I am feeling very excited to hear that somebody hear my cry and I wasn’t telling a lie about my child or about the school,” Clarke stated in a telephone interview with the Jamaica Observer.

At the time, her daughter, Jade Bascoe, was not at home. However, the mother said her daughter would be ecstatic to hear that the public defender had ruled that she be reinstated. “She really wanted the truth to come out, and so she would be really excited,” the mother said.

Clarke said, while the last few weeks have been challenging, her daughter has remained strong emotionally because of the support she has been receiving.

“She has the support of her teachers, so she is not feeling bad,” Clarke said, adding that her daughter has also realised that she has the support of the wider society, and as such has remained strong.

Harrison Henry said she opened an investigation into the matter because, “as far as she could decipher from media reports, there was no adequate explanation as to what caused the rescission of the appointment”.

The public defender’s report comes after the Ministry of Education asked the school to review its decision to revoke Bascoe’s appointment. The ministry made the call based of the advice of its regional director, who met two weeks ago with Principal Heather Reid-Johnson to discuss the decision.

The matter sparked public outrage after it was alleged that the principal stripped Bascoe of the positions of head girl and house captain because her religion was stated on a school application form as Jehovah’s Witness.

However, Bascoe’s mother has said that her daughter was not a practising Jehovah’s Witness and explained that the denomination was written on the form because the child visited the church.

Harrison Henry said her interview with Reid-Johnson on October 14 found that Bascoe was an exemplary student and, on that basis the child was appointed head girl.

The public defender also said that the principal accepted that the child “met all the requirements set out in the school’s handbook for appointment to the top leadership office in the student population”.

“The principal confirmed that the child had previously served in other leadership positions, such as form captain, [and] students’ council representative, and there was no complaint whatever of her in the performance of her duties while holding office,” Harrison Henry wrote.

According to the public defender’s report, on September 22, a day after the student’s appointment was announced, she was required to offer a vote of thanks to the guidance counsellor who had conducted devotion for grades 10 and 11 students. The principal, who was not present, said that after the devotion the guidance counsellor reported to her that she ‘wondered’ about the head girl’s religious denomination.

“At that time, the principal told us that she did not know the head girl’s denomination,” Harrison Henry wrote. The public defender said that whatever the guidance counsellor told the principal, it was sufficient for them to retrieve the head girl’s file from the general office.

The file contained Bascoe’s application form, completed by her mother, for entry to the school, and which disclosed that the head girl’s denomination was Jehovah’s Witness. Harrison Henry said that in trying to find out what exactly the head girl had said at devotion, the principal told her that Bascoe spoke of Jehovah while she was giving the vote of thanks, “saying something about what He can do for them…”

The head girl was summoned to the principal’s office where, in the presence of the principal’s secretary, Bascoe was questioned about her religious denomination.

“The principal pointed out to her that on her file it was stated that her religious denomination was Jehovah’s Witness,” Harrison Henry wrote, adding that the principal stated that the head girl expressed surprise, but admitted that she visits Kingdom Hall — Jehovah’s Witnesses house of worship — but explained that she was “on a spiritual journey”.

According to Harrison Henry, the principal said when she sought to find out from the head girl why Witnesses do not participate in leadership roles, Bascoe said: “We are told that we are not to go for leadership positions because what you and other churches do is satanic.”

“The principal found that the use of the word ‘we’ by the head girl convinced her that the head girl had embraced the teachings of the Jehovah’s Witness faith,” the public defender wrote.

She said that when Reid- Johnson asked Bascoe whether she could discharge her duties as head girl, and whether there would be any conflict of interest, Bascoe paused before answering each question, but said she could perform all civic duties required of the office.

Harrison Henry said that at the close of the meeting, the principal advised the child that the conversation was not over, told her to sleep on it, the possible conflict, and the conversation would continue the following day. However Reid-Johnson warned “this is not going to happen”.

The public defender said that when she asked Reid- Johnson to explain what her warning meant, the principal explained that what she conveyed to the head girl was that her appointment would be rescinded.

On September 22, 2015, Bascoe was advised by the principal that she was no longer head girl and house captain. Harrison Henry said Reid- Johnson explained that once a student is a Jehovah’s Witness, that student is automatically excluded and disqualified from becoming head girl and from holding other leadership positions at St Hilda’s.

The same, however, does not apply to students who are Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Seventh-day Adventist, or Baptist. According to the public defender, Reid-Johnson explained that it was her experience that Jehovah’s Witnesses do not participate in civic activities, and a head girl is required to participate in such activities.

“The principal was unequivocal in expressing that being a Jehovah’s Witness disqualifies any girl from becoming the head girl and holding leadership positions. The principal went further to state that the exclusion of Jehovah’s Witnesses from such positions was a policy of the school,” Harrison Henry wrote.

However, the public defender said the chairman of the school board denied that there was any such policy at the school and expressed a contrary view.

Harrison Henry said she was not successful in getting a commitment from the principal that the position would not be filled until the matter was resolved. In fact, the principal said that a decision had already been taken by her and the teachers to promote the deputy head girl.

The board chairman said that, while the matter was one over which the principal had authority, the board would convene to consider the case, given the widespread media exposure it has received.

That meeting is scheduled for October 22. The public defender, in her list of findings, stated that the exclusion and/or disqualification of girls from leadership positions, based on their denomination, is a discriminatory practice and has no place in our schools and in our democracy.

She recommended that, in similar cases, the child’s parents should be called in, and stated that a child should not be subjected to an interview with the principal and the principal’s secretary, both of whom have authority over the child.

She described the interview as uncaring and said that the principal overstepped her authority as she does not have any right to question a child about his/her religious denomination.

Noting that under the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms all religions and denominations are equal, Harrison Henry said that stripping the head girl of her office because of her religious denomination, real or perceived, was “unjust and a violation of constitutionally protected rights”.

Added the public defender: “This child was not treated in a humane manner, and no allowance [was] given by the principal to the child’s ageappropriate reaction to the emotional hurt heaped on her, she having done nothing to incur the humiliation and embarrassment caused by the principal’s action founded in raw discriminatory practice.”

The public defender also wants a guarantee from the board, the principal, and the school that no further acts of discrimination or retribution will be taken against the head girl on her reappointment.

Yesterday, Robert Nesta Morgan, the Opposition spokesman on education and youth, said he welcomed the public defender’s findings.

“We have maintained from the beginning that we were extremely uncomfortable with what was done to this child and we suggested to the school that she be reinstated with an apology.

Now that, based on her findings, the public defender has also recommended Jade’s reinstatement, we hope that the school will be guided and this unfortunate chapter in an otherwise stellar track history of the institution can be closed,” Morgan said in a statement.

“We should always be cognisant of the impact our actions have on children, and recognise that they have rights too, protected by the constitution,” he said.

“We should never allow discrimination to creep in or be maintained in our education system. We must also acknowledge the important role the church has played and continues to play within the system.

This role must continue to be a part of the more perfect partnership we seek to attain; one where all stakeholders have a place at the table.”