THE bitter rift between Tarrant High Principal Garfield Higgins and the school’s teachers and board widened yesterday at a Parent/Teachers Association (PTA) meeting during which parents shouted down the guidance counsellor as he launched a verbal assault on the principal. It took the spiritual intervention of PTA President Reverend Patrick Jordan to calm the parents, whose anger resulted in the guidance counsellor, Stephen Simpson, abandoning his report and leaving the meeting.
But even as he left the room, Simpson accused the principal of lying about what is happening at the St Andrew school.
“Him lie and wicked. The people don’t know the truth,” Simpson yelled. Earlier, during his report, Simpson claimed that what Higgins said had nothing to do with the issue the board is having with him. However, he said he was not at liberty to discuss what was at the heart of the matter because of legal restrictions. “As staff, we have to work long hours, nights and weekends, and this principal call us slackers and lazy teachers,” he said. But the parents objected, responding with a resounding, “ah true the principal ah tell!” Some parents began walking out of the meeting, while others were overheard insisting that the principal was speaking the truth about teachers being habitually late for class. “Ah true, because my son tell me seh some ah di teachers dem no come class,” one parent hissed. Higgins and his staff have been at loggerheads for some months now, and last week he insisted that he would not grant their demand for him to resign.

The dispute intensified after the board recommended that Higgins be dismissed. However, he filed an injunction in the Supreme Court to stay the dismissal. Yesterday, the board chair and the principal used the regularly scheduled PTA meeting to tell their sides of the story, or as much as they could, given the legal restrictions. The meeting got off to a fairly good start with the board chair, Marston Thomas, addressing the parents on the vexing issue. Thomas opened his brief remarks by telling the parents that the board’s first interest was the students. Thomas, who has served as board chair for three years, said the board never had a problem with the previous principal. However, he noted that there has since been a “lot of conflict” between the current principal, teachers and other staff members. The board, he said, has been receiving letters of complaints from teachers, parents and students about the principal. This, he said, led to the board’s December 18, 2012 recommendation to the Ministry of Education that Higgins’ provisional employment not be extended. According to Thomas, Higgins didn’t wait for a decision from the ministry, but instead took the matter to court where the next scheduled hearing will be tomorrow. At this point, Thomas proceeded to lambast the media, in particular “the newspaper”, which he accused of not carrying a release issued by the ministry on the matter.

“The release did not come in the paper because they only interested in juicy story about teachers late and selling,” he said in obvious reference to the Observer’s report on the matter last week. He told the parents that there was much he had to say on the matter, but was constrained because of the court action. One of his grouses, however, was that students were being expelled or suspended without the board being informed. He said that the school has a “good bunch” of teachers, with only “one and two who may be causing problems”, but added that this happens everywhere. Thomas, who had earlier announced that he could not stay for the entire meeting, ended by asking the parents not to take sides, but to “hear the truth” before deciding. When Thomas started leaving the room, Higgins, whose turn it was to speak, said: “I’m sorry he can’t stay, because he mentioned about truths and I’m about to give some truths.” Noting that his objective is to transform Tarrant into a school of choice, Higgins said the teachers at the heart of the problem have been tardy for years, and he intends to put a stop to it. “Teachers have been doing these things since the previous principal and they have been getting away with it,” he said to loud applause.

According to Higgins, the board continuously failed to act when he complained to them about the chronic lateness of some teachers. “The teacher who was late 89 times has been here for years, and no one has challenged it,” he said, again to loud applause. “They say I’m a dictator and I don’t have any respect. But if you don’t do your work I have no respect for you,” he said.
Higgins told the parents that under his watch the school has been reaping academic success and he pointed to the education ministry’s inspection report which gave Tarrant a satisfactory grade and which, he said, was better than some traditional schools.
“Children are passing exams because I’m insisting that teachers go to class and teach your children,” he said, again to loud applause. He pointed to his decision that no child will be allowed to be a part of the graduation ceremony unless they have four subjects as evidence of where he is taking the school. He, too, promised to speak more on the matter once the court case is settled. At least three parents got up to commend him on his efforts when he opened the floor for questions. The Dean of Discipline later noted that the situation had started to affect students.

Rick Ross Incident Too Similar To TuPac and Notorious B.I.G. Demise
Added by Asa on January 30, 2013.
Saved under Black Celebrities
Tags: Asa Lovechild, Biggy Smalls, facebook, fashion, fire, friends, New York City, News Channel, Rick Ross, Rolls Royce
Emergency 911 calls from the Rick Ross incident have been released to the public. When asked how many shots were fired, the manager told the dispatcher, “I don’t know, but they’re coming back, I’m hiding.” The Floridian restaurant manager that made the 911 call told News Channel 6 South Florida ,“And I just heard a bunch of gun shots go off and a car sped by and my server just left on her bike to go to it. Oh my God, they’re turning around and coming back.” Rick Ross and another passenger in the car, Shateria L. Moragne-el, were not injured when shots rang out, after the two were leaving the restaurant. Ross ended up crashing his car into an apartment building.

But those in the industry are questioning the incident. Did Rick Ross set the whole thing up? The incident looks and sounds all too familiar. It was September 7, 1996 when TuPac Shakur was gunned down, after coming from a fight at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas. While sitting at a red light, in Suge Knight’s BMW750iL,a white Cadillac pulled up beside the car and opened fire. Pac died a few days later. Fast forward to Mach 1997. Biggy Smalls, aka Notorius B.I.G. was leaving an after party, hosted by Vibe Magazine and Qwest Records. Biggy gets into a GMC Suburban and heads back to his hotel room, after the party is shut down early. While sitting at a red light, a Chevrolet Impala SS pulls up and opens fire. Biggy was pronounced dead about thirty minutes later.

Now Rick Ross gets shot in an almost similar fashion? While it is true that Ross has enemies, this scene seems sketchy. Something stinks with the whole “shoot em’ up”, “bang bang” story. DJ Alex “Big Lip” Chisholm of Florida’s Power 96 said he was not surprised by the incident. “I talked to a lot of my friends in the industry. They’re like, OK, you know, Rolls Royce, machine guns pulled out, and he doesn’t get hit at all, and his car doesn’t get hit at all.” “They really don’t believe it.”

Fake or real? Is Rick Ross trying to bring more clout to his image by emulating what happened to TuPac and Biggy? Or is someone really trying to take him out?

Asa Lovechild is an accomplished actress and singer out of New York City.

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I GUESS MELISSA MOTHER A LOOK FI DI BAIL MONEY…………… OH BOY

HAZEL

TARIK

WELL…DEM SEH CHARLENE DI AMERICAN CITIZEN GET LOCK UP BECAUSE A ONE SHOW DUNG LASTNIGHT…FROM INSTAGRAM DI WHOLE A DEM DID START CHARLENE, HAZEL AND TARIKA DOE KNOW HOW DORA COME IN BUT DEM SEH SHE DID INA HAZEL STUSH FACE AND BAY TINGS…WHEY DI RES A DIS PETTY SHOW DOWN DEH?