A sad day for Sunbeam boys as CPFSA removes wards

The exercise represents, in part at the moment, the completion of a Supreme Court order sought by the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) to have the boys relocated to another care facility after it reported systemic abuse at the Sunbeam Children’s Home located here in the greater Old Harbour region.

The management of the all-boys children’s home is vehemently contesting those claims by the CPFSA, while calling the actions of the state agency to be lacking due process.

In January, after the CPFSA served Sunbeam notice revoking its license, the matter was placed before the St Catherine Parish Court in Spanish Town where a judge granted the home a stay of removal.

This was a minor victory for the operators of Sunbeam, but it was not for long as lawyers representing the CPFSA went to the higher court and got their desired wish granted.

And so March 7, 2024 will go down as an unforgettable day for the 48-year-old institution and the boys, many of whom have called this facility their home for the majority of their young lives.

No tears were observed but the atmosphere was palpable at best during an ordeal that lasted for roughly three hours. That they are minors also meant the media could not engage them either.

A CPFSA official who did not want to speak on record, said all efforts were taken into consideration to reduce the psychological impact on the boys being removed, meaning they were sensitized leading up to this day.

All 36 boys from Sunbeam will now be housed at the Stony Hill Boys Home in Kingston, said Randy Finnikin, chairman of Sunbeam.

Speaking to Old Harbour News after the boys departed the compound Finnikin argued that they will continue to fight in the court to protect its reputation while imputing that the CPFSA’s approach is heavy handed and possibly sinister. 

“We received that [Supreme Court] notice last Friday requiring a response from us to the court by Monday (of this week) and for us to attend to the Supreme Court on Thursday of the same week. We didn’t obviously have the resources to mobilise a legal team to respond to that filing adequately; which we attempted. We were unable to meet those deadlines,” he said.

“They beat us at the game. We were told to show up at the Supreme Court at 2:30 pm; on our way to the Supreme Court we got a call to say oops it’s not a physical meeting it is a Zoom meeting. Our team is now scattered all over the countryside… unfortunately our lawyer fell off the Zoom call [and] that didn’t stop the judge from proceeding.

“We will appeal. We have engaged a strengthened legal team to make that submission. In the first instance we got this notice yesterday at about three o’clock in the afternoon that they are coming today by 10:00 am.

“So all of that you’ve seen here is an overnight preparation on our part to ensure that the boys were engaged, calm down, prepared because we believe that every day with these boys is our best days with them.

“They have removed them now but we hope that our training, our modeling before them will have prepared them for life after Sunbeam wherever that is and if it is the Lord’s will that they be returned to us.”

What is even more baffling to the Sunbeam management, the chairman argued further, is that the CPFSA opted to punish without conducting a thorough investigation or sought to implement a remedial programme which would normally be their first approach.

He added: “We went to court twice and the judge looked at the case and wouldn’t side with the CPFSA because the judge wasn’t convince that what they wanted was in the best interest of the boys and the judge said ‘listen get that done and come back to me and prove to me’ such and such.

“We went to the next court date, it was differed to the 11th [February] but they circumvented that. While we were preparing to go to the lower court they circumvented, pull a fast one on us and this is the result of it. But I’m hoping that good sense will prevail.”

Old Harbour News sought a comment from the CPFSA but was advised to submit our questions. We have done so and now await a formal response for publishing.