Kalifa: I am not going to St Charles

“When we go to court bring that!” This was the warning of Lynette Marshall, as a “messenger” presented a letter addressed to her from the St Charles High School, Tunapuna. Acting as a messenger, a man who identified himself only as Persad and who claimed to be a Math and Technical Drawing teacher at the school, brought the letter for Marshall. The contents of the letter remain a mystery as Marshall refused to touch the letter. The man said he did not know what the letter contained, but was told by Marshall that if it was her child’s documents then the principal could return it to her in court, or if it was a letter accepting Kalifa into St Charles, then she did not want it.

Archbishop Gilbert yesterday issued a statement welcoming Kalifa Logan to St Charles, “should she wish to do so.” When Newsday visited Logan yesterday, the child and her mother were both adamant that Kalifa would not be attending St Charles. Kalifa’s mother said, “Archbishop Gilbert would have to become principal of the school (St Charles), or transfer that nun before I would let Kalifa attend St Charles. “After the way that nun treated my child, Kalifa would be a victim of discrimination and victimisation, because the Bishop forced her to back down.” Marshall said she did not think the move to St Charles would be “suitable for Kalifa,” and that “the Archbishop could say what he wants but at the end of the day the Archbishop is not in the school teaching my daughter or watching what is going on with my daughter.”

Marshall said this time the situation might be worse for Kalifa as “it might be discrimination and peer pressure.” She added, “That nun would tell Kalifa, ‘yes darling! I like how your mother put me in the papers’.” Kalifa, however, said she would not go to St Charles now and preferred to go to El Dorado Secondary. The family is, however, still awaiting official word from the Ministry of Education. Marshall said if Kalifa was not in school by next Monday, which would make it three weeks after the school term started, she would take legal action. She admitted she received many offers from lawyers and concerned citizens, but she is not able to afford a lawyer to fight her case. She said, “If I had money I wouldn’t even look for a lawyer, I would pay and send my child to a school.”

She added that any lawyer and anybody willing to help Kalifa would be appreciated. Marshall was quick to point out that some people are “taking it like it’s politics, and that it could happen to anybody, but it is my child’s education we are speaking about.” Marshall told Newsday her daughter was not coping well with the entire  situation. When Kalifa visited a doctor yesterday morning, her mother was told that Kalifa was “stressed out.” She spends her time indoors, only coming out when her younger sister returns from school. Marshall said, “Sometimes Kalifa doesn’t go anywhere but she puts woogies and ribbons in her hair to say that she went to school. “You know what it is like to put nice ribbon and woogie because you want your friends who passing to think you went to school? In this life you should raise children’s standards.”

Instead she feels as though “that nun was heartless to me and my daughter.” For this reason, she said, “The further that nun keeps from me and my daughter, the better.” Marshall also confirmed that Abu Bakr had indeed offered her daughter a space at his school in Mucurapo, saying, “He is the only one who has any idea of what my child is going through. He is the only one that opened his doors to my child.” The family however opted not to accept his offer as the distance from home to school “would be too great.” Marshall said she was grateful to Newsday as the first newspaper to highlight the discrimination by Sister Adriana against her daughter and she thanked all other newspapers and radio stations that followed Newsday’s exclusive story.