GIS Principal Disputes Claims About Female Wards

Government officials are disputing reported events, surrounding the alleged attempted suicide by two wards of the Government Industrial School.

This follows child’s rights advocate and Co-Founder of Operation Safe Space, Dr. Marsha Hinds, claiming there were attempts at suicide and that the children were being barred from interacting with their guardians and legal team.

But we have been frozen out. We have no information. Her guardians are not even getting the information that they are supposed to get. We don’t know if the child was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The last update that we got is that she had vomited two or three times but she was still at the institution, we have been trying to figure out since Saturday night, the status of this child and nobody we can’t get any status. And this is why when we are talking about the ways in which the government Industrial School operates outside of the constitution of Barbados, This is a prime example because here it is that you have an attorney at law who has been properly retained, who is trying to make contact with a client, and it’s being denied. That can even happen in the adult prison of Barbados.

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But acting Principal of the G.I.S. Catherine Jordan tells Starcom Network News that the girls in question are in good health.

Well, I heard the news at lunchtime and all I can say is this, the public has to be told and the public has to understand when we are discussing minors, every girl at the industrial school…is a minor. Therefore, I do not discuss minors, a minor has to be represented by somebody and I do not discuss minors in any way at all in the public. But what I can say is that all the girls registered at the government industrial school are at the school, and they are all in good health.

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Ms. Jordan gave the assurance that access to the girls will be granted.

If the parents want to come to the school, the parents or anybody that represent these children want to come to the school to see them they’re free. Of course, if they make the contact with the management of the school, they’re free to come and see their children, their clients, and their awards, anytime, as long as they get in touch with the school.