Shenia Roberts
Journal Staff Writer

Theresa Saunders, a resident of Harbour Island is seeking justice for her
granddaughter after she claims she was beaten by a police officer on
school campus. Saunders says the incident took place back in January of
this year when two officers were visiting the Harbour Island All Age
School to deal with another matter.
She says her 12-year-old granddaughter was in the office area with
friends near the two officers when one of the children went up to the
officer alleging that her granddaughter jeered a curse word toward the
officer. The officer admittedly didn’t hear the curse word herself but
took the word of the student.
Saunders says the officer then retrieved the principals’ cane from the
desk and proceeded to hit her granddaughter repeatedly across her
bottom until the cane broke. Neither the principal nor headmaster were
present during the incident and hadn’t learned about it until the
complaint was made. In addition, Saunders said that someone at the
school during that time reached out to the child’s father who headed
there immediately to see about the matter.
Consequently, Saunders shared that after taking her granddaughter to
seek medical attention it was determined that she had a bruised bottom,
and welts and ridges were visibly all over the area. Furthermore,
Saunders argues that the Ministry of Education’s policy only permits the
principal of the institution to enforce corporal punishment. She further
expressed that the school is out of the police’s jurisdiction saying, “my
granddaughter is not a criminal”. Saunders is calling for a clear protocol
to be established and followed for disciplinary actions in schools. She

believes that parents should be notified whenever these decisions are
made.
The concerned grandmother said they have made complaints to the
school, education authorities and the local police department but have
gotten no response since January. However, she said “this will not be
swept under the rug like other situations with police going into school
beating children for simple things”. Saunders says she and her family
have already begun the legal process to formally sue the accused officer
for her actions and the way it has affected their child.
She explains that this incident has greatly affected the child’s social life
and feels it may have crushed her spirit. Saunders says that the child has
now been acting out at school and having issues that never existed prior
to the incident. She says “she’s been through a lot from then to now, I’ve
seen a total change”. She also notes that she has reports and records to
show the decline in her granddaughter’s social interactions and feels
“Someone must be held accountable”.
Similarly, a group of students at a Primary School in Bimini last year
had a similar experience when a police officer was brought in to
discipline a group of students, resulting in bruising across the legs and
outraged parents and guardians.
Saunders is calling on officials to deal with this issue and establish a
proper protocol to ensure this never happens again.