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JC, the Manleys, and bullying

Bullying has been a fixture of most of Jamaica’s secondary schools over time, and several of those students who attended popular institutions have been recipients and perpetrators.

What transpired at Jamaica College over the last month (and maybe there are more stories not told) is nothing short of a disaster for such a noble institution – certainly one of Jamaica’s best, and only a foolish, cynical individual would argue that.

While doing some research days ago, I found that JC had a long history of bullying. It is not unique to the school alone, as bullying of some kind exists everywhere, girls’ schools too, but, naturally, there are variations.

In my time at Kingston College, I saw acts of bullying, but I was never bullied. Maybe it was because some of the boys knew that I had left from a community in St Mary to be part of one of the finest schools in the Western Hemisphere, and there were many stories about the usage of machetes in that part of the country to settle scores, in particular one in which a relative of mine had his head severed by another man during a dispute over animals from the killer’s side of the fence eating my grand uncle’s crops. The killer then placed the head into a basket and walked with it to the police station where he rolled it onto the ground and nearly gave the policeman on duty a heart attack. So, it was a big deal without KFC around.

The stories stretched far and wide, but the information that confronted me last week in respect of JC, found that the legendary Norman Washington Manley, JC scholar, top athlete, Royal Air Force fighter, perhaps the greatest lawyer to have been produced by Jamaica and, of course Jamaica’s Chief Minister and Premier, was involved in bullying while he attended JC.

In his words from Caribbean Essays: An Anthology, 1973, Manley was quoted as saying that JC, which he attended from 1906 to 1913, “was a tough school in those days, with about 150 boys – 100 boarders and 50, day boys.

“Bullying was rampant and there was a good deal of homosexuality, for the most part not carried to extremes,” Manley was quoted as saying.

Editor of Caribbean Essays, Andrew Salkey, took the quotes from the publication, Manley and the New Jamaica, Selected Speeches and Writings: 1938-1968, which was edited by Professor Rex Nettleford, now deceased.

Interestingly, Manley was quoted as saying that he bullied and was bullied until he decided to “turn over a new leaf,” whatever that meant.

Norman’s son Michael, a three-term Jamaican prime minister, who boarded at JC from 1935 to 1942, was reported by the Michael Manley Foundation to have said that he broke the tradition of “bullying small boys at JC,” without further detail.

So, like Minister of Education and a host of other things, Dr Dana Morris Dixon alluded, the uptown boys too, to put it another way, also carry out these acts. Seems so at least from 1906 to today.

For JC, it is one project that principal Wayne “Crime Stop” Robinson will have to lead in taming bullying, and when successful, he should make the blueprint available to other schools that also need it.  

School athletes transfers

What’s the difference between what is happening now across Jamaica’s secondary schools, in terms of students transferring from one school to another?

Some years ago my good friends Dr Lascelve ‘Muggy’ Graham of St George’s College and Jamaica football fame, and Excelsior’s stalwart Danny James, now deceased, who also represented Excelsior at football, cricket, and hockey, and the national hockey team; joined forces in arguing that once a student is registered at School One, he or she should remain at the same place for the duration of his or her school life. It was an elitist view then, as it is now. Nowhere along the lines of good reasoning did they ever consider that in 90 per cent of cases, the transferred athlete, footballer, cricketer, netballer, volleyballer, tennis player, and so on, stood the chance of bettering themselves. 

Not once did they include in their arguments the fact that some schools may not be equipped with things like a running track, a cricket field, a volleyball court, a basketball or netball court. Maybe, not even a physical education teacher or coach, as exists now in certain schools.

Those schools too, may not even have proper nutrition programmes, whereby students cannot afford meaningful food that would enhance their health. Instead, they would have to rely on cheez trix, bulla, bun, kola champagne and other ‘fla fla’.

If an outstanding athlete, or cricketer or footballer started his years at a low-achieving school, and has tremendous potential, but is not provided with the tools to take his talent much higher, what would he be expected to do if he sets his sight on making a career of sports? 

Until the State can improve conditions at certain schools, those athletes who have strong sports backgrounds and who are enrolled at those institutions should not be victimised or impeded, if they see greater opportunities for their upliftment.

And yes, academic work is exceedingly important. However, not every student will be able to make what many term a decent living from an academic-driven job. We are not all blind to be able to see that the sports industry is the fastest-growing globally.

Many of the world’s wealthiest are from strong sports backgrounds. So, when, for example, the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association decides to inflict more harm on students by preventing them from making the switch to other institutions, that organisation would only be crushing the potential careers of others by imposing sanctions.

I am not saying that students should go to school and ignore the academic components of their overall assignment. Far from it. And there should be no free-for-all when schools with heavy pockets can ‘buy’ out parents by offering huge incentives to have their children jump over the wall. But until the national system is fixed, there must be greater transfer of talent, and not limit it to the handful that exists now. Right now, many of the students who are involved in competitive sports, are brighter than those who are not.

In the end, Jamaica will benefit, and not only Turkey will be interested in adding to the broader options. Artificial Intelligence cannot replace human talent in sport.

ICC step up for Caribbean’s best umpire Chris Taylor

Finally… top Jamaican umpire Chris Taylor has been appointed to the International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket West Indies panel of umpires.

Over the last decade, Chris emerged as the best umpire to have emerged from Jamaica, and to my mind, the number one in the Caribbean. His appointment became effective on April 1, 2026, but it must have been an embarrassment to Cricket West Indies that the people who call the shots didn’t see the need for one so brilliant to have been ushered to higher duty much earlier.

Nonetheless, Chris, at 45, has a bright future at the level that matters.

Umpiring in Jamaica over the years has not been like a constant shining light. Although Jamaica leads the way in putting out the best officials over time in the region, the numbers remain low.

Only Steve Bucknor stood alone for accuracy and fairness for many years of his stellar career. Before him, there was one Douglas Sang Hue, but he had his moments when he did not make the decisions that were fair and clear-cut. For example, when Lawrence Rowe, the darling of Jamaican batting, made his debut against New Zealand at Sabina Park in 1972, he made 214 and 100 not out against the Kiwis. In the second innings, Rowe was out not given out leg before wicket before he had scored, when Sang Hue looked the other way. Maybe he felt that he would have been lynched by a crowd that had witnessed the double century, and a deeper intoxication for runs had occurred.

Even Rowe, in later life, marvelled that he was not given out, but maybe it was all about the shots that he played in the first innings double century that had Sang Hue mesmerised into not wanting to exercise his finger. There were other decisions in other matches that he blundered too.

Bucknor would not take sides, however, and it was only in the latter part of his career, that his decisions were not always right. Certainly, though, he was always fair.

Chris is very much like Bucknor, but faster on the draw, as while Bucknor would often take what seemed to have been 10 hours to raise the finger in giving someone out, Chris needs only a second to determine that.

I am sure that he will represent the nation and the region with dignity and fairness, far better than what others have failed to do.

Janice Allen and the pain at Cornwall Regional

Opposition activist Janice Allen has joined the chorus of concerned people who continue to hope that there will be some kind of redemption as it relates to services at Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay.

Cornwall Regional’s continued existence and hope to be the best medical facility to, essentially, serve the people of the west, has been bedridden by policy decisions for the greater part of 10 years.

Allen is wasting her time, because, in years to come, there will be no improvement in the services that the institution provides, caused mainly by the ineptitude of the Minister of Health and Unwellness, Christopher Tufton.

We are taking too long to, but we must learn, once and for all, that the minister who is supposed to guide the ship, has been stuck at sea for much too long.

Scandal after scandal continues in the ministry, yet the prime minister, who is supposed to call the shots, just reclines his chair and stays the punishment that ought to be meted out to his colleague. 

Strange enough, Andrew Holness and Tufton are not friends. They cannot stand each other, yet the former, who can make things happen regarding the restructuring and movement of the square pegs that have been placed in round holes, simply ignores the sloppiness.

Ms Allen will become even more frustrated, and many others too. The eight-year repairs will continue for much longer; the climbing cost overrun will push up even further to several more billions, and there will be additional weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

There will be more reports, like that of a woman who died after waiting almost a week without being assigned a bed for further treatment.

Ms Allen, too, will push her blood pressure even higher when she realises that the hospital’s inventory and emergency response status remain flat. The demoralised staff too, is another matter. She might want to avoid the possibility of even going to Cornwall Regional to treat that elevated blood pressure.

Come on, people of the nation, the Anancy stories that have followed Jamaica’s health sector are too many to digest. These are ‘tuff’ times. The suffering must end.