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Calabar says sorry

The Board of Management of Calabar High School has issued a statement denouncing the behavior of a substantial number of students at the school’s assembly on Monday morning, who engaged in vulgar, derogatory chants directed at rival boys’ school Kingston College.

That incident followed Kingston’s College’s victory in the boys’ version of the Annual Boys and Girls Athletics Championships on Saturday, dethroning Calabar after a six-year run in the prestigious competition.

The Monday chants at Calabar, captured on amateur video and circulated on social media, immediately drew condemnation across the society and sent members of the board and the school administration scrambling to contain the damage.

The board, in its statement, said it found the video content “deeply abhorrent and not in keeping with the values, ethos and principles that we have upheld as a church school for over a century.”

Accordingly, it said, it immediately launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident, held a discussion with the Principal of Kingston College (KC), and sent a written apology to the staff and students of KC.

It added that Calabar will send a delegation of teachers and students to Kingston College on Wednesday April 3, 2019 “to participate in their devotion and to publicly offer the apology to the staff and students.”

“The School’s leadership has met with the entire school population and conveyed its strong condemnation of the utterances which can only be described as disturbing, distasteful, vulgar and not in keeping with the positive values and attitudes that we try to instill in our young men at Calabar,” the board declared.

It said preliminary reports so far indicate that “the teachers present were not party to the unfortunate utterances, which took place during the regular chanting of school cheers. In fact the acting principal, who was also present, took immediate action and stopped the offensive chant once he became aware of the content.”

 

Ministry of Education

Officials of the Ministry of Education, led by Minister Without Portfolio Karl Samuda, also met with members of the board and senior leadership at Calabar on Tuesday, in direct response to Monday’s incident.

The ministry, in a release after the meeting, said the board had has promised to providing a report to the minister by Friday, April 5.

It said Mr. Samuda “condemned the behavior in the video as disturbing and distasteful and not in keeping with the positive actions and values that our education system instills in our students.”

It said he urged students to “demonstrate respect and good sportsmanship notwithstanding any disappointments,” and promised that steps are taken to ensure that the matter is “appropriately addressed”.

 

Opposition 

In a statement Tuesday afternoon, the Parliamentary Opposition said it was deeply concerned about the incident involving the Calabar students. 
 
It expressed alarm and urged the students to refrain from taking action that could create animosity.
 
Opposition Spokesman on Education Ronnie Thwaites called for a thorough investigation into the incident.
 
He said every effort should be made to hold accountable those responsible for what he described as a decrepit show of sportsmanship.
 
According to Mr. Thwaites, there is need to restore the now tainted image of Calabar.


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