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Jamaica No Problem, Says
Tranquility Bay
BY PETRE WILLIAMS Observer
staff reporter
Sunday, June 08, 2003
 Students at Tranquility Bay
on their way to class. (Photo: Conroy Walker)
WESTERN BUREAU --Jay Kay,
head of the Tranquility Bay facility in St Elizabeth where Americans
send their errant teenagers for behaviour modification, has
rubbished reports that four "feared" staff members from an affiliate
-- Dundee Ranch in Costa Rica -- have been deported to his
institution after an uprising there.
"Absolutely false," said
Kay, who has been general manager of Tranquility Bay since its 1997
opening. "It was never even considered a remote possibility," he
added, saying he knew nothing of the Jamaicans mentioned in recent
wire reports originating in the United States.
"I have no idea. They don't
work for me. I have nothing to do with the facility in Costa Rica.
So I don't have a clue," he told the Sunday Observer.
Nineteen months after its
opening, Dundee Ranch, the latest in a string of programmes which,
like Tranquility Bay, are geared at reforming troubled American
teens, reportedly collapsed, following a student uprising at the
facility over two weeks ago. It was reportedly prompted by the visit
to the institution by officials from the child welfare agency, PANI,
who informed students they had certain rights.
"When PANI told some kids
they had the right to speak to their parents and the right to
private mail or even not to be held in that country, kids ran for
freedom," 17 year-old Joel Snyder of Wisconsin reportedly said in an
open letter to parents of Dundee Ranch.
Snyder was an eyewitness to
the uprising.
Further reports are that in
the wake of that revelation, a host of students fled the facility
for a beachhead 20 miles away on the Pacific Ocean and for
neighbouring hills.
Pandemonium is alleged to
have ensued as staff members sought to detain students through
force. Students, it is reported, were beaten in an effort to quash
the uprising. And the beating is said to have continued even after
officials had left.
The officials' visit to the
institution came in the wake of complaints to them by former
programme director, Amberly Knight.
Two months earlier, Knight
reportedly wrote to the country's child welfare minister, alleging
that the Ranch's operations should be brought to an end as it was
poorly managed and took financial advantage of parents, even as it
put students at "physical and emotional risk".
A number of students have
since been pulled out of the facility by concerned parents. Head of
the Dundee school, Narvin Lichfield, has been ordered to remain in
Costa Rica pending an investigation and could be slapped with
charges. Government officials there have also indicated that four
"feared" staff members would be deported to Jamaica.
For its part, Tranquility
Bay has come under scrutiny amid similar allegations of insanitary
conditions and abuse of its teenagers who number about 290.
Tranquility Bay previously
came under the public microscope following the death of American
teen, Valerie Ann Heron who reportedly jumped 35 feet to her death
in early August 2001.
Then in 2002, a Virginia
woman filed a lawsuit to have her 13 year-old nephew removed from
the facility and sent back to the United States. The case lasted
some six months and saw Tranquility Bay receiving a bashing from
three past students who had agreed to testify on the woman's behalf.
At least one of them claimed
he had got scabies from the "dirty showers". Another reported that a
director assigned him to do "5,000 jumping jacks, 3,000 crunches and
200 push ups three times a day". And if the exercises weren't done,
he said, students would be forced to lie face down on the floor with
their arms behind their backs and their feet held on the floor while
staff kneeled or sat in their backs.
But commenting on the recent
claims, Kay insisted the allegations against the school were untrue
and said he had no fears of a similar uprising at his institution.
"Absolutely not, because the
allegations that have been made are untrue, number one," he said. "I
don't know where anybody gets the idea of insanitary conditions.
There are people who come out and inspect the facility and have yet
to find insanitary conditions."
The Health Department
confirmed Kay's denial.
"We don't usually have a
problem there (at Tranquility Bay) with sanitation," a Health
Department official who requested anonymity told the Sunday
Observer.
Added the official: "We do
not have checks like monthly and so, but I would say once every
three months. We look for wastewater disposal, sewage disposal, and
pests. We look at the drainage, the canteen, and the bathrooms. And
over the period we have never had any adverse conditions as such,"
the official said.
"You will find little things
here and there that need to be remedied and we usually get that
done. For instance, like at the canteen you would find a broken
window or so and say, 'okay, get this put in place' and they usually
comply."
Kay, explaining why he did
not fear an uprising at Tranquility, said the student to staff ratio
was higher than most other schools -- 220 staff members to 290
students who range in ages from 19 to 22.
Furthermore, he said, they
had a proven track record of success with teens and the firm support
of their parents.
"Staffing patterns reflect a
higher staff to student ratio than most other schools like us that I
know of, and based on that, the likelihood is slim to none that a
similar event would occur here," he said.
"Parents know us and because
we have been around for six years they have a lot of faith in us
because we do have a proven track record with students and family,"
he said.
At the same time, he
expressed reservations regarding the allegations about the Costa
Rican facility, but said he would be outraged were they found to be
true.
"If there are substantiated
cases of abuses that have been alleged then I would not only be
disturbed but I would be outraged. I fully support the government's
investigation into such allegations. I think it's mandatory but I do
feel the government could have approached things on a more proactive
basis so as not to create such a chaotic situation at the school as
has been reported," he said.
Added Kay: "I mean, I've
been doing this about 10 years, and after dealing with thousands of
kids quite often you'll find many embellishments in their report and
that's not to say they are not accurate. But kids clearly operate on
an agenda.
"A number of the kids that I
have spoken to were at the facility in Costa Rica. First hand, they
have not substantiated the allegations. But I haven't been there so
it is hard for me to comment..." said Kay.
"Tranquility Bay is not
abusive and I can supply kids who will say we are not abusive and
who were there for two years..." he added.
Sunday Observer checks with
the St Elizabeth police have revealed that since the suicide in
2001, they have not had occasion, save during patrols, to return to
the facility.
"We haven't had any more
incidents happening there since that one (suicide)," Corporal
Allecia Stewart of the Constabulary Communication Network told the
newspaper.
But she said the cops on
patrol did not actually go on the compound. "They just speak to
personnel from the outside of the gate to check to see if everything
is fine."
Kay said the facility
enjoyed a good relationship with Jamaican state agencies and he
dismissed charges that his operation lacked transparency, saying he
had no problem with people touring the facility, as long as the
privacy of the teenagers was not compromised.
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