Should This Be The End Of Corporal Punishment In Schools?

A belt buckle on the end of a strap wielded by a fifth-grade teacher, forever changed the lives of 11-year-old Tajoery Small and his mother Carlene Clarke.

One fateful December morning in 2009, the teacher a member of staff at the New Providence Primary School in St Andrew who had grown frustrated with another student's behaviour, delivered a blow to the unruly child which somehow struck Tajoery's left eye as he sat on the bench the two children shared.

The accident severely damaged the young boy's cornea and lens, requiring extensive surgery at the Bustamante Hospital for Children in St Andrew. Still Tajoery lost his vision in that eye.

The outcome shattered his world and devastated his mother, who has struggled to pay for his medication and the countless trips to and from clinical and counselling sessions. She said to date, she had spent more than $300,000.

The heavy expenses, however, are secondary to the sleepless nights Clarke endures, attending to her son who is often wracked with pain, she related in an interview with the Sunday Observer last week. The cost is also minute in comparison to the contempt she feels for the teacher, who she said had not been punished in any substantial way for the incident.

"Tajoery cries constantly because of the pain. Sometimes he says 'mommy take out the eye nuh, weh mi agguh do? It a hurt me'," she continued, adding that she had to stop him from wearing prescribed eyeglasses, which he said made his eyes hurt "like they were on fire."

"And what hurts me more than anything is that this teacher is still at the school teaching, still getting a salary, and my child is here suffering because of her," she lamented as she fought back tears.

"When I heard about the extent of the damage to my child's eye, the way I feel, the neglect, everything, and to think that nothing is happening, to be honest, I just feel like I wanted to fight," she grieved, adding that she had to be the one to report the incident to the Ministry of Education.

"A referral letter from the Ophthalmology Department at the Bustamante Children's Hospital reported that he (Tajoery) had suffered a left corneal laceration with rupture of the left lens..."

"Examination at the University of the West Indies Eye Clinic revealed visual acuity of 20/20 in the right eye, and 20/200 in the affected left eye." read the letter.

In layman's terms, someone with 20/200 vision would have to come up to 20 feet to see a letter that a person with normal vision could see at 200 feet.

Another letter, dated December 9, 2010, written by consultant ophthalmologist Dr Donovan Calder, also one of Tajoery's doctors, concurred.

"He (Tajoery) was assessed as having a left corneal scar... This corneal scar is permanent and he will need to be fitted with either contact lens or have a secondary intraocular lens implanted." said Calder in the statement.

"As a result of this injury, his vision in his left eye will be permanently impaired, although it can be improved significantly (with surgery)... Tajoery would have experienced a considerable amount of pain at the time of the injury and would have been absent from school for several weeks," the letter continued, adding that the child's medical history showed that his vision was fine before the accident.

Clarke has since contacted the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and has secured a February 11, appointment for consultation. However, the corneal transplant Tajoery will need is estimated to cost some US$20,000, and Clarke said she does not know how to find the first dollar.

Her fears deepen as the appointment date draws closer.

While she noted that the school generally conformed with the education ministry's policy that corporal punishment should not be practised in schools, she acknowledged that: "It is just an unfortunate incident, but normally when you punish, you don't do it to abuse or to cause any injury," she said, adding that the accused teacher has been working at the institution for many years.

Clarke said strict warnings had been given to other teachers to prevent such an incident from reoccurring, but confessed: "I can't be in all the classrooms all the time. But I try to ensure that they don't do it."

While corporal punishment is not illegal, Minister of Education Andrew Holness reiterated his stance against it, while explaining that he was unable to speak about the legal aspects of Tajoery's case.

"The ministry has articulated a policy against corporal punishment precisely for the reason of what happened to young Tajoery. His eye cannot be replaced, and there is no form of indiscipline that could justify the blinding of the child, albeit accidentally," he said.