Executive Director Of Jamaicans For Justice Resigns Amid Sex Education Controversy

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The controversy surrounding a sex-education programme in six children’s homes has led to another casualty with the resignation of Kay Osborne, the Executive Director of local human rights watchdog, Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ).

Osborne, in a letter to JFJ Chairman, Lisa Lakhan Chen on the weekend said she made her decision after the board of directors said the “children’s home programme was a HIV/AIDS prevention intervention.”

She stated that with the nature of the intervention programme having been confirmed, she could not work as Executive Director of a human rights advocacy organization, “That does not advise me that it is implementing a programme in children’s homes to decrease the spread of HIV/AIDS.”

The JFJ administered children’s homes intervention programme, “Healthy Sexual Growth and Development in Marginalised Youth: Rights, Responsibilities and Life Skills,” became a matter of great public concern, after some aspects of the curriculum, focusing on oral sex and anal sex, became public knowledge.

The programme started during the tenure of Dr. Carolyn Gomes, the previous Executive Director of JFJ, and both the Board and the new Executive Director maintained that Osborne had nothing to do with its implementation.

Osborne drew attention to JFJ’s statement on Friday that, “Explicitly exonerates me from having had knowledge or responsibility for the programme and affirms that I had nothing to do with the design, development, preparation or implementation and or approval of the programme modules, nor did I have oversight of any aspect of this programme.”

She said, the JFJ statement affirmed as well that the board of directors “is satisfied that at no point did Dr. Carolyn Gomes or anyone else, either in writing or verbally, indicate to me that the JFJ was implementing a programme in children’s homes to decrease the spread of HIV/AIDS, and the board is satisfied that I was unaware of the content of the said programme modules and no aspect of the same formed any part of my job description since I was appointed Executive Director.”

The Attorney-General’s office has been asked to examine whether there had been any breach of relevant laws in relation to the implementation of the HIV/AIDS prevention intervention programme.