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Letter dispute
8/10/2012
AS was the case at the beginning of the Commission of Inquiry, there is once again some contention involving a letter.
At the outset of the Commission, there was much questioning surrounding two letters allegedly written and sent by the Principal of the Alexandra School to the Ministry of Education and to a teacher at the school. Six weeks into the Commission of Inquiry, another issue surrounding a letter has come up.
This time, the letter in question is one that was written to the Principal by Physical Education teacher, Sophia Ifill, reporting an incident between her and the Principal’s cousin, another Physical Education teacher, Roger Broomes. The letter sparked argument among the various members of counsel and the Commissioner over the past two days when it was produced by Roger Broomes as he sat in the witness seat.
At the time, Broomes was attempting to submit the letter as evidence, but when he was questioned about how he came by the letter, he quickly withdrew his offer of submission.
It is not so much that Roger Broomes was in possession of a letter that was not addressed or copied to him, but the intrigue came when the Commissioner himself asked the witness how he came to be in possession of it. It took the Commissioner several tries at questioning, with one lawyer even warning the witness that he could be held in contempt, to finally get Roger Broomes to admit that he was given the letter by the acting Secretary/Treasurer, and also his girlfriend, Stacia Boyce.
This admission was greeted with stunned reactions from the counsel and the crowd gathered at the Commission as this Stacia Boyce has no authority to give any document to any teacher at the school.
When Cecil McCarthy, counsel for the Principal, began his questioning of Roger Broomes, he sought to revisit the issue of the letter, pointing out that the witness was in fact given a copy of Sophia Ifill’s letter by the Principal at the time of the incident, but subsequently misplaced that copy. The witness added that before he came to give evidence at the Commission of Inquiry, he asked the Principal for a copy of the letter, and the Principal instructed him to get the letter from Stacia Boyce.
The other members of counsel however did not accept that explanation, maintaining that the witness would have given that evidence at the time he was initially questioned about the letter had it been the truth. (AN)
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