JGHS student arrested for assaulting teacher

John Gray High School, Grand Cayman

(CNS): A teenage boy from John Gray High School has been arrested following an altercation with a teacher at the school last week. Both the police and the school’s principal have confirmed that the incident occurred around 9:30 on Thursday morning. School officials said that a support teacher had been hit in the head with an object by a student who had been fighting with another child. The boy was arrested on suspicion of assault in the presence of his parent and taken to the Detention Centre and later bailed. The victim received only minor injuries and was not taken to the hospital.

JGHS Principal Jonathan Clark said the school was “supporting the RCIPS, the teacher involved and the parents of the young man in establishing the facts and ensuring that appropriate sanctions and measures are put in place”. He added that he was “proud of the response from our staff and students in ensuring that normal school business was maintained and there was minimal disruption to learning”.

Clark said he was aware of a video being circulated which showed the latter part of the assault on the teacher. The video, which was filmed by a student and re-posted numerous times on social media, shows part of the brawl and the struggle by security officers at the school to pull the student away from the teacher.

Twelve months ago the education ministry released figures that revealed a dramatic improvement in disruptive behaviour from students leading to exclusions, debunking perceptions that the public schools are in turmoil.

During 2015, 324 children were excluded from John Gray High School, which has a population of around 1,000 students, but in 2016 that figure fell to 103. At Clifton Hunter High School the number fell from 71 in 2015 to 34 last year from a student body of around 800. The ministry has not yet released figures for 2017.

Following a major incident at JGHS in October, in which armed police were called to the school after an outbreak of violence that involved weapons, Clark said such incidents were rare and the school was largely winning the battle against anti-social behaviour.