Petersen leads Kalifa’s legal team

SENIOR COUNSEL Gilbert Petersen will lead a team of lawyers who will represent 12-year-old Kalifa Logan in a discrimination suit against St Charles High School in Tunapuna and the Ministry of Education. Petersen confirmed last night that he was approached to lead the team on behalf of the schoolgirl who was not allowed to attend Form One classes at the beginning of the new school term earlier this month because of her Rasta hairstyle. When contacted, Petersen told Newsday that he was approached on Tuesday night and again yesterday morning after which he gave a commitment to represent the girl.

Petersen said he was putting the legal team together to institute proceedings in the Port-of-Spain High Court. One member of the team is Justin Sobion, son of former Attorney General Keith Sobion, who is now principal of the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica. Petersen said he had not studied the case in detail as he was now getting “bits and pieces” of the matter. He said after the team is selected, lawyers will sit down and decide on how they will approach the matter. Newsday learnt that the lawyers will focus their attention on compiling the documents over the long weekend.

When asked who will be the defendants in such a case, Petersen said the school which allegedly discriminated against Logan, as well as the Ministry of Education, which was responsible for placing the girl after the SEA examinations. Petersen was appointed a Senior Counsel along with seven others in November 2003. He was also appointed director of the Legal Aid Authority in 2003. He is now leading the prosecution’s team in the case against eight persons and three companies in the $1.6 billion Piarco Airport Terminal Corruption Inquiry. He was also counsel to the St Ann’s Hospital Eggnog Commission of Inquiry in 1994, which investigated the deaths of 14 patients. Kalifa Logan, who was refused entry to St Charles High School because of her hairstyle, was later placed at the Five Rivers Junior Secondary School. She was then shifted to the El Dorado Senior Comprehensive School after a public furore.