By Klieon John
St. Kitts Reporter
Collective gasps of shock and indignation rang out through the island last week as persons learnt of the news that a young boy was allegedly slapped by an official of the Cuban Embassy.
The boy, Devon Williams, age eight, is a student of the Beach Allen Primary School in Taylor’s Range.
It has been gathered from several reports that the boy had been playing a game at school called ‘Freeze’ with the daughter of the official when he accidentally ran into her, knocking her over.
It was then that the official, who was there at the time and had seen the incident, became involved. According to the boy, the official slapped him twice and pulled him by the hand to the office.
St. Clair Williams, father of the boy who was slapped, is expressing outrage at the treatment of his son by a stranger. He told a news source that he had never even scuffed his son, much less slapped him and feels hurt that someone else, a grown man, would take such liberty with his son.
He said when he received a call from his wife saying that she was called and told there was an incident at school involving their son, he rushed over to the school even without his shirt because he thought his son had taken ill.
When he arrived at the school, he was told not to enter by the teachers and was not given any information until the police arrived. While he was waiting, he overheard persons saying that the two children were playing and that his son fell on the little girl. They said that her father then rushed out of his car, pulled the boy off the girl and slapped him twice before taking him to the office.
It was then confirmed by the teachers when he was finally able to speak to them and get answers on the matter. Meanwhile, the police, who arrived on the scene shortly after the incident, took the official and the boy to the police station for questioning. The official has not been arrested due to his diplomatic immunity.
Until present time, there has been no official word in response to the incident from the embassy who said that they are currently dealing with the matter through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and feel that the matter does not warrant much publicity until significant headway has been made.
Officials within the ministry remain tight-lipped about the investigations so far. In the mean time, citizens are expressing outrage at the audacity of the embassy official. One man told The Observer that he could not believe what had happened but did not expect anything to come out of the matter.
“I do not see how a grown man can just go up to the school and slap off a little boy like that. How can he just come to the country and feel he can do this? I know nothing is going to happen to him because of his diplomatic immunity but if I were his father I would not be satisfied at all. Police might have to lock me up or something because that man wouldn’t have any peace.”
The father of the boy has expressed his intentions to seek legal action, despite the diplomatic immunity granted to the official.
