The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

MORE than four months after several Bimini Primary School students were allegedly beaten and bruised by a police officer, Commissioner Clayton Fernander still claims there is an ongoing, incomplete investigation into the matter. 

He has not said what about the case requires such a lengthy investigation. 

“There’s no new update at this time, but that matter is still being looked into between the police and the ministry,” he said yesterday.

The parents of the students have long suspected that the police will take no action in the matter and are not addressing it. 

In March, the Ministry of Education and Technical and Vocational Training said it requested the Ministry of National Security to investigate the alleged actions of the officer.

In May, one of the parents, Tanishka Sands, said she reached out to officials a week before talking to The Tribune, but got nowhere.

 “I haven’t heard anything from the police, social services, nor education,” she said. “I reached out to education about a week ago, and nothing. They didn’t say anything, and nobody contacted me.”

 She said she didn’t believe the investigation, if it exists at all, is being handled swiftly or appropriately.

 Since the beating, the school’s principal has been reassigned after Education Minister Glenys Hanna Martin confirmed the punishment was inconsistent with the ministry’s policies.

 Davaria Sherman, the mother of an 11-year-old boy who was beaten, said in May that police officers did not contact her.

 “I haven’t heard anything from anyone. No one contacted me. I honestly feel like they’re trying to sweep it under the rug, but I can’t say for sure,” she said.