Duo gets bail for assaulting Berbice teacher

Mar 17, 2023 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

Kaieteur News – Two persons were on Thursday charged with assaulting Marlon Daniels, the 20-year-old Fort Wellington Secondary School teacher on Monday. The duo, Dishon Daniels and Trey McPherson were both granted bail in the sum of $15,000 each when they appeared virtually before Magistrate Peter Hugh at the Fort Wellington Magistrates’ Court.

Daniels and McPherson pleaded not guilty to the charge of assault causing actual bodily harm. They will return to court on March 30, 2023 for report.

Daniels was badly beaten on Monday while at a stationery outlet opposite the Fort Wellington Secondary School. He received injuries to his face, arms, back and other bodily parts.

The injured teacher had told Kaieteur News that he started working at the Fort Wellington Secondary School located at Onderneeming, West Coast Berbice (WCB) in January 2023.

He recalled that he was leading his second-form students in revision studies when he noticed a fourth form student (the accused) sitting at the back of the classroom. The teacher told Kaieteur News that while he was addressing the class, the fourth form student shouted, “why you don’t shut the f*ck up!”

The teacher said he asked the student who uttered the profanity to leave the classroom “and he started using a set of indecent language, so I said to come around let me see the face and that we going to the office.”

Daniels then escorted the fourth form student to the Headmaster’s office where he was scolded. This did not deter the lad from continuing his derogatory remarks.

“He started to say he got people to deal with me and if you (headmaster) try to get in to…if you hear this little boy in the office, he started threatening both of us in the office and a senior teacher that was there, tried speaking to him and he start to curse out the teacher and said he was going for his uncle,” Daniels said.

Daniels said he informed the student that he will be going to the Police after which he returned to continue teaching his class. Shortly thereafter, the teacher said he went to a photocopying centre located opposite the school to print test papers. It was while he was sitting, waiting on the prints to be completed he felt someone grab him.

“When I turn around it was the uncle [the accused’s uncle], he pull me on my shoulder, and the student and four other adults… big men, they started punching me into my face and started slapping me and I was trying to wiggle out from the uncle because he was still holding my arm behind my back; it is still hurting me,” Daniels revealed.

The injured teacher told Kaieteur News that the fourth form student picked up a steel bar that was nearby and swung at him, hitting him on his arm and four times to his back. His cell phones were damaged during the process as well.

“After they were finished, they were on the road boasting,” Daniels recalled.

Additionally, Daniels disclosed that when he left to go to the photocopying centre, the headmaster made contact with the police, located just about two minutes away from the school. The headmaster was told that a patrol would be sent.

A second call was made to the police after the ordeal and according to Daniels, “the officer laughed and said the patrol is out.” A report was made to the police station and a medical done.

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand and Regional Education Authorities have since contacted Daniels in relation to the matter.

Meanwhile, Daniels is currently on leave and recovering from his injuries at home.

He believes that a just punishment would be the expulsion of the student since it was not his first encounter with him during class hours.

“He was loud, shouting across the classroom and I just asked him to leave and other teachers are scared of him…,” the injured teacher told Kaieteur News.

Daniels also believes that there should be better security arrangements at the school since the guards allow everyone to enter the premises.

• Dishon Daniels, Fort Wellington Magistrates’ Court, Fort Wellington Secondary School, Marlon Daniels, Trey McPherso