Five grade 10 boys have been expelled from St Andrews school for filming a fight in which they “slapped up” a younger pupil – reported to be the son of PLP MP “Brave” Davis.
A relative of one of the boys has spoken out against the punishment, calling the brawl a “playfight” – while admitting however that the victim “may not have known” he was going to be hit in the “movie”, which went on to be posted on the internet.
Confirming the expulsion of five boys – and the suspension of one, after his parents reportedly removed him from the school and put him into school in Canada before he was expelled, to avoid his record being compromised — Mr Rupert Roberts, owner of supermarket chain Super Value, and grandfather of one of the boys, ļ¾ blamed the decision to impose disciplinary action on the group on a misunderstanding.
“I don’t think St Andrews school is understanding the incident – I don’t think they realised what happened,” said Mr Roberts.
The grandfather – one of the founding investors in the school – described how the “movie” progressed:
“The star of the movie taps the fella in the face, three times, the fella don’t flinch, it’s not even a girl slap. When he slaps him he smiles. There were several additional slaps that he knew were coming – that’s the beginning of the movie.
“You can see it’s nothing serious. The kid that was getting slapped up, he holds his face up to get slapped, he slaps him once and it didn’t twist his face, it didn’t move his face a bit.”
It was a “tap fight,” said the grandfather. According to Mr Roberts “there were two stars” in the movie – the “main star, and the victim was the other star.”
“The main star pulled the bottom of (the victim’s) pants leg down off of the stand. Then the scene moves to, I suppose it was a scrabble, but you can’t see the scrabble,” said Mr Roberts.
Describing his grandson’s involvement, Mr Roberts said: “At that point, my grandson walks into the movie and he smiles into a laugh – he didn’t bow but he smiles. Then he turns his back on the camera and you see a little hustling.
He told the headmaster that he was trying to push them apart, well, you can’t see anything in between.
You can see some action, he’s either pulling or pushing, a few little bits – and that was his participation.” According to Mr Roberts, the fight as clearly not a serious one because the boys appeared lighthearted throughout.
“When you go to fight you’re usually angry but my grandson comes into the movie, just about bows and laughs and turns his back on the (camera) and I guess, you can imagine, that there’s a scuffle,” he said.
Mr Roberts claimed that, as far as he was aware, there were no injuries resulting from the fight.
He blamed the school’s reaction to the incident on the treatment of the footage after the incident. When the “movie” had some “very distasteful music” added to it later on it may have swayed the school’s judgment, said the grandfather.
Allegedly, some of the approximately 700 other students who attend the school have talked about the possibility of demonstrating against the boys’ expulsion when the term reconvenes on Monday. “The kids are up in arms about this,” he said. Describing the situation as “complicated”, Mr Roberts said: “The thing is, that kid may not have known he was chosen for the playfight, he may not have known. He’s a kid who they knew they could make this around and get away with it.”
“Some kids knew a movie was being made, some did not,” he added.
Asked whether he could confirm reports that the victim was the son of MP “Brave” Davis, Mr Roberts said he was not sure.
“All of the kids involved love St Andrews school, they love education. These five aren’t really troublesome kids, they’re good students, and they want to get back into school and continue with their education.”
St Andrews school was unavailable for comment today.
Source: The Tribune
