Oswald Robinson, President of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers’ Union, expressed his profound disapproval regarding the treatment of teacher Shermaine Joseph-Barnwell by members of the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force on Monday, the 3rd, in a video shared online.
The educator and mother of three, who planned to resign on Monday, the 3rd, endured appalling treatment at the hands of male police officers, while female officers looked on as she was dragged from a government building on the Caribbean Island of St Vincent.
The administration of the island has found itself embroiled in a protracted disagreement with various educators residing there, the latest contention centering around a vaccine mandate case that is poised to be adjudicated at the privy council in the near future.
Robinson stated, “This sort of punishment is totally unacceptable. I hope the Commissioner of Police will do a proper investigation to ensure that these officers are brought to justice. The SVGTU is very much concerned about the matter, and its national executive will deliberate further to decide how they will proceed with the matter. What the video shows is a “clear violation, abuse, and gender-based violence, and that it is something that must not be tolerated. The police overstepped their boundaries and used excessive force on a teacher who is a mother, a wife, and a sister.”
On Tuesday 4th, Joseph-Barnwell, speaking on the Boom FM 106.9 OMG Show, said, “One officer proceeded to grab me around my neck and thrust me to the floor, then grabbed me by my hair while I was on the floor and dragged me, while another officer held my two hands, dragging me up the hallway. The officers dragged me from the top floor of the ministerial building to the platform at the front, which is where the tourism used to be.”
St. Vincent exhibits the most pronounced occurrence of gender-based violence against women in comparison to its counterparts in the Eastern Caribbean region.
In the year 2020, authorities on the island recorded an increase in various manifestations of gender-based violence, particularly physical, psychological, sexual, and economic domestic violence aimed at women.
Joseph-Barnwell conveyed that an officer accompanied her to a cell upon her arrival at the police headquarters in Kingstown. This experience, she remarked, was particularly troubling, as it necessitated the use of a bottle as an improvised toilet and the subsequent task of mopping the floor.
“I was taken to the central police station upstairs, I guess, which would be the CID unit” Upon my arrival, a high-ranking officer guided me to a room housing a detained young man. So, he opens the door, and he says, Get out. So, the young man gets up, and he gets out. And then the man literally takes his two hands and pushes me face down into the cell. My legs were still hanging out the door. He told another officer, Drag her in. They drag the remainder of my body inside the cell. Then he slammed the cell door. I couldn’t use the bathroom; I had to urinate in a bottle in the cell. I explained to them my husband does not know my whereabouts. So, I need a phone call. I need to reach out to either my husband or my lawyer. I have a young baby, and I was not given the phone call”.
“My lawyer came in and saw the bottle of urine, and then he told them to let me throw it out. So that’s how they let me out of the cell to discard the bottle of pee (urine). and I had to mop up what was there.”
Joseph-Barnwell has articulated significant apprehensions about what she views as corruption within the Ministry of Education. She declared on the radio program her intention to initiate legal proceedings against several individuals involved in the disconcerting event that transpired on Monday, the 3rd.
