Eldemire quits Munro Trust - Says decision on ganja-smoking schoolboys is a slap in he's face.

Dickenson Trust, to protest the education ministry's overturning of a decision by the board of Munro College to expel five students for smoking ganja.

"I have personal confidence in the board and I personally agree with the action they took with the boys," Eldemire told the Sunday Observer. "For the education minister (Burchell Whiteman) to have overturned their decision is a slap in the face for the board."

It is the Munro and Dickenson Trust which recommends to the education ministry, members of the board for Munro College, a high school for boys, and Hampton School for girls, as managers of the endowment left by 18th century plantation owner, Hugh Munro, for the education of poor children in St Elizabeth.

The chairman of the Munro and Dickenson Trust, Dr Owen Morgan, who heads the medical faculty at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona campus was unavailable for comment.

But Eldemire's resignation, in a letter to be delivered to Morgan tomorrow, is likely to deepen the crisis and the disagreements over positions of principle and discipline that have engulfed the 145 year-old Munro for several weeks. The resignation comes ahead of a planned board meeting in early January at which the matter is likely to be discussed, but Eldemire felt that it was important that he register his position early. "I have to stand behind my principles rather than personalities," he said.

The chairman of the Munro board of governors, Laurie Sharpe, was still contemplating his personal options at the weekend. But there were hints that the board as a whole or several members could either resign or challenge Whiteman's ruling in the courts.

Five boys were asked to leave Munro last month for having left the school's premises without permission and for smoking ganja (marijuana) on the compound. They were formally expelled when their parents declined to move them.

A sixth boy was placed on probation in connection with the same incident, his softer punishment reflecting the finding that he had neither smoked nor left the premises although he was among the group.

A school handyman, who allegedly sought to extort money from the boys for his silence after he caught them smoking, was fired.

In allowing the appeal made by the parents, Whiteman argued that the board had exceeded its powers by punishing the boys twice for the same offence - a five-day suspension and then the expulsion. He had also weighed in the favour of the boys, Whiteman said, a commitment not to repeat their errors "as well as the signs of academic progress which they have exhibited during their time at the school during the term".

Munro is one of the few remaining boarding schools in Jamaica and the boys went there during the September term from other high schools. It was weeks after that they allegedly went to the nearby town of Malvern to source the ganja.

The school's new principal, Dr Earl Hendricks, with the support of his board, has been stressing the need for a return to academic excellence and discipline at the school, a position commended by Whiteman.

But said the education minister: "I believe that the opportunity remains for further action by the administration, which reflects the seriousness with which the offences are viewed and provides a means of correction and rehabilitation for the students involved as well as warnings for others who might be tempted to transgress."

However, Eldemire, while expressing sympathy for the boys and their parents, insisted that Whiteman erred and his action could be interpreted as rewarding indiscipline and bad behaviour.

"You can't break the rules of the school and the laws of the country," he said. "...It is a bad message that is being sent to the country. I really could not go along with Mr Whiteman on this."