PHILIPSBURG:--- The mother of an LPN student that is attending NIPA said she never filed any complaint with the school’s social worker against any teacher or students that were part of a WhatsApp chat group. Kerry Heron told SMN News on Wednesday evening that she felt bound to speak out after hearing the statements made by the Minister of Education on Wednesday. Mrs. Kerry Heron said she went to NIPA with her daughter seeking the assistance of the social worker to speak to her daughter after she learned that her daughter was starting a relationship with a male student at the school. She said as long as her daughter is living in her home she is the “captain that will steer” the ship when it comes to raising her children. Mrs. Heron said that this is not the time for her daughter to have a boyfriend and when she spoke to her daughter she was giving her some backchats which led to her slapping her in her mouth. The mother said that she was raised on good Christian principles and her children are also raised on the same principles. Heron said she would not allow anyone to tell her how to raise her children because she worked hard and as long as her children live under her roof they have to abide by her rules. The mother who was obviously angry said that she takes control over her children and her daughter does not have her own phone and that the WhatsApp group is on the family cellular phone. She said all messages that are sent in the group she reads them because she was told that the group was created for school purposes. However, one weekend she saw a student shared a pornographic video in the group and she began speaking to the students, two of which she said was extremely rude to her. She said the teacher Ms. Farrah Busy-Richardson who was ill at the time entered the chat and called on her students to stop the conversation they were having. The mother said while speaking to the Social worker the issue regarding the WhatsApp conversation came up but she did not file any complaint against anyone, not the teacher or the students. She said if the Social Worker said she filed a complaint then that Social Worker would have to provide her with a copy of the complaint with her signature.
Mrs. Heron said that she was a single parent that worked hard to raise her three children and at no time she would allow her 18-year-old daughter to have a boyfriend.
SMN News reporter asked the mother if she ever physically abused her daughter after hearing that she had a male friend, the mother said that she did slap her daughter in her mouth twice because she was speaking to her daughter and her daughter was rude to her and that is something she will not tolerate. The mother said that she is raising her children based on Christian principles whereby they must respect and honor their parents. She even went on to quote verses from the Bible where it states that children must obey, respect and honor their parents.
Heron said that if parents on St. Maarten were raising the children the way they were raised then the island would have less crime, death of young adults and far less teenage pregnancy. She made clear that no police or government officials could tell her how to raise her children because none of them knew how hard she worked as a single parent to raise her children. Furthermore, she said she never abused her children, especially her daughter, but admitted that when her daughter was giving her backchats she slapped her in her mouth.
