Principal gets leave to challenge transfer

ACTING secondary school principal Gene Baccus, who was transferred by the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) four months ago from the San Fernando Senior Comprehensive School (SSCS), was yesterday granted leave by a High Court judge to challenge the transfer. Justice Humphrey Stollmeyer, presiding in the Third Civil Court in San Fernando, granted leave on the ground that the commission failed to consider the fact that Baccus was more senior than Vishnu Dass. Dass was the principal who was relieved by the Ministry of Education in June from his duties at Penal Junior Secondary School and instructed to take Baccus’ principal position at SSCS. On June 9, Baccus was ordered by the Ministry of Education to take up a new position of acting principal at Penal Junior Secondary. The transfer caused an uproar among pupils of the SSCS, who staged a demonstration outside the school’s compound on Farah Street, San Fernando.

Pupils surrounded Baccus and refused to allow him to leave. He had been principal there for just three months before the transfer. In an application filed by attorney Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj SC in the Sub-Registry in San Fernando, seeking review of the commission’s decision, Baccus stated that he was more qualified in the teaching profession than Dass. In court documents, Baccus also stated that he was more experienced, and had more merit and ability in the profession than Dass. Baccus, a secondary school principal since 1974, also contended that he lives at Gulf View in La Romaine and had a legitimate expectation of being appointed principal of a school in the area where he resides. Baccus sat in court for the proceedings yesterday. Instructed by attorneys Asaf Hosein and Vijaya Maharaj, Ramesh Maharaj argued that the commission ought to have re-considered Baccus’ challenge of the transfer, but it did not.  No date has been fixed for the trial hearing of the issues, one of which contended that the commission acted beyond its  powers to transfer Baccus.