Hinds happy for Kalifa

JUNIOR National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds yesterday praised the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Port-of-Spain for ruling that 12-year-old Kalifa Logan should not be denied her place at St Charles High School in Tunapuna, merely on the basis of her dreadlocks. The decision to allow Logan to attend St Charles was taken during a meeting between Roman Catholic Archbishop Edward Gilbert and Episcopal Delegates for Education, Social Justice and Communications, the Catholic School Board and St Charles principal, Sister Adrianna Noel, at Archbishop’s House in Port-of-Spain yesterday.

Contacted yesterday about the Archbishop’s decision, Hinds declared, “I am very elated (for Kalifa) but not surprised (at Gilbert’s decision).” The minister said Gilbert’s decision reaffirmed his faith that the Catholic Board and its related agencies would treat the matter with the fairness and urgency that it warranted. Speaking with Newsday during the tea-break in the Senate on Tuesday, Education Minister Hazel Manning conceded that the ministry’s decision to transfer Kalifa from St Charles to Five Rivers Junior Secondary School (after Noel denied her entry into the former) may have been a mistake. Saying that the ministry tries to “facilitate the process” in situations like Kalifa’s, Manning gave the assurance that “we will then continue our negotiations until it (Kalifa’s situation) is sorted out.”