PHILIPSBURG:--- The Board of the Dominic School (Catholic Schools Board) fired a pedagogic teacher who was abused by a 6-year-old student. The incident happened on Thursday.
SMN News understands that all teachers of the St. Dominic School are aggrieved at the decision taken by the school board namely by Ms. Jacquie Green and Jessie Aventurin Hodge.
The teacher who hails from Suriname has been teaching at St. Dominic since September 2018. According to information provided to SMN News, the young teacher and mother teaches Dutch and has been encountering problems with several students that would tell her that they don’t like the Dutch Language.
On Thursday the teacher went to teach a classroom of group 3 students when a known 6-year old that has behavioral problems began acting out that he slapped the teacher several times. When the teacher tried to restrain the student by holding him on his shoulders the active 6-year-old began kicking her and tore the buttons of her shirt off while he continued to hit the teacher in her face.
SMN News understands that the teacher tried effortlessly to restrain the child but he overcame her with the constant kicks and slaps. Eventually, the teacher reacted by slapping the child on his face which cost her job.
Aventurin Hodge and Green told the teacher because she is the mother of a 1-year-old twin they will pay her this month’s salary and her vacation pay and she must turn in all the school's belongings including her health insurance card by Monday.
Teachers of St. Dominic School are gravely upset about the way the school handled the matter. They said the student is a child that has behavioral problems and he attends “IE” where he is seen by a phycologist. Besides that, they said even though their colleague acknowledged that she should not have reacted by hitting the child back the school did not consider that she was also abused.
“Imagine a 6-year-old can beat up a teacher and instead of the child being disciplined the teacher is being fired, very soon St. Maarten schools and teachers will be experiencing school shootings as they have in the USA. As a teacher, I am calling on parents and teachers like myself to brace themselves for what is ahead of us.”
The teachers also said that their colleague is new to the island she just came here a few months ago, they also said that the teacher has two minor children that are in daycare and that she does not have any family member on the island to lean on for support.
SMN News tried contacting Minister of Education Wycliffe Smith for a comment on the ongoing situation but he could not be reached.
