St. George School, with 40 years in operation, denied having expelled Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo’s three children in a paid advertisement published in today’s news media. The lawyer representing the children had complained to the media about the children’s premature expulsion two weeks before the end of the school year.
The school explains that the children’s mother, Deomaris Marmolejos opted to leave the school before the close of classes in June. The school explains that there was strong opposition from parents of other students to their staying on in the school and that the situation was causing disquiet in the school. Thus the decision to desist from readmitting the children for the next school year.
Of the three children, one was in second grade, another in first grade and another in kindergarten. In an interview with Listin Diario, the school’s director, Maureen Tejada said that parents were concerned for their children’s security. The school had accepted the Paulino children be readmitted in April 2005. The school’s management says that now they are exercising their right as a private institution, in the name of the common good and their own survival, in reserving the right to admit the minors for the next school year.
Hoy newspaper editorial comments the children were assisted by heavily armed bodyguards. Meanwhile, Diario Libre reports that the mother said that her children were pre-judged and condemned for a situation that they can’t yet understand. In a letter sent to St. George School pupils, she explained that undue pressures, perverse suggestions and the convenience of the moment led her to take the uncomfortable decision to withdraw her children from the school early.