A group of students who were aggrieved over decision by the Administration of the Bomi County Community College (BCCC) to suspend them from attending classes, dissolution of Students Council elected leadership as well as placing a ban on the affected students from partaking in campus politics ran to the 11th Judicial Circuit Court seeking the aid of the court to restore their rights.
The aggrieved students through their lawyer, Atty. Samwar S. Fallah filed a Petition for Declaratory Judgment before the Court challenging the legality of the decision of the Administration of the Bomi Community College to take certain actions against them which were not backed by law.
What seems a shocking moment for the people of Bomi County recently, was when the 11th Judicial Circuit Court in Tubmanburg Bomi County, ruled in favor of the suspended Students Council Government of the Bomi Community College against the administration of the College.
Led by their elected President Maima Thomas the students in their Petition for Declaratory Judgement indicated that they were elected through a peaceful and legal election by the entire student population of the Bomi County Community College with no protest from any party or the administration of the College.
Petitioners further declared that following the election, November 18, 2022 was set aside as the date for the induction ceremony and the Administration of the Bomi Community College, 2nd Respondents endorsed the date for the induction and made a financial contribution of Two Hundred Thousand Liberians Dollars (LRD 200,000) for such induction ceremony as said amount was issued to Petitioners by 2nd Respondents through a cheque.
According to the Petitioners, the Administration again changed the date for the induction from November 18, 2022 to November 11, 2022 without giving any reason to the students for the change.
The aggrieved students said after they accepted the new date and bought food items, the President of the University got angry with the invitation extended to opposition lawmaker, Senator Nyonblee Karngar Lawrence to serve as Guest speaker and the administration again verbally told the students not to carry out their induction on the November 11 date without indicating the new date for the induction.
In their Petition, the students said the College President insisted that he could not allow an opposition figure to serve as guest speaker because he wanted to protect his job.
After the students carried out their induction, the BCCC through its President Abimelech Paye Gbatu dissolved the elected student's council leadership, suspended the leadership from attending classes and partaking in campus politics.
On April 28, 2023, the student through their lawyer filed the Petition for Declaratory Judgment praying the Court to declare their rights as legitimately elected Students Leaders of the Bomi Community College and also requesting the Court to declare the action of 2nd Respondents, the Administration of the Bomi County Community College for suspending Students leadership from attending classes and partaking in college politics as illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional;
The Respondents, the Administration of the Bomi Community College and 1st Respondents believed to be the newly appointed Student Council leadership of the BCCC filed their Returns on April 5, 2023, subsequently withdrew and filed Amended Returns on May 12, 2023.
Following the pleadings, legal arguments were held and the Court under His Honor T. Ciapha Carey in its Ruling handed on Thursday, June 22, 2022 held the 2nd Respondents, the Administration of the BCCC liable for violation of the rights of the students without legal reliance.
The Court ruled that the administration, (2nd Respondents) is held liable for taking decisions against the petitioners, (the students) that are not backed by the student's handbook of the BCC or any law since the handbook is the guiding laws regarding the actions of the students, and should have all times be consulted by school Administration before taking any actions against the students believed to have engaged in violation.
The Court also ruled that the actions by the Administration including suspending students from attending classes, engaging in college politics, and functioning as elected students Council Government of the BCCC is declared void since it was not taken in line with the student's handbook and in line with the law.
"All petitioners' rights as infringed upon by second Respondents without legal reliance are hereby ordered restored; 2nd Respondents are hereby ordered to pay the amount of US 5,000 to Petitioners as expenses incurred on legal Proceedings," the Ruling further stated.
We do not accept Court's Ruling-says College President
Speaking to Front Page Africa via mobile Bomi Community College President Abimelech Paye Gbatu said the court rulings was bias therefore, The College Administration and the Board have decided to take an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Also, speaking after the Court's ruling, Atty. Samwar S. Fallah, who represented the suspended student council Government, said if the school's administration had gone by the student's handbook which serves as a guideline to students and punished the students in line with the law it would have been legal and thus uncontestable.
Atty. Fallah said in line with law before a decision is taken that infringes against the rights of individuals, the decisionmaker must first read the law governing the institution and act properly such as giving warning, subjecting the students to fair, impartial internal investigation.
"Before you say the students have done something wrong, you must subject them to investigation and let the investigations state that they have violated the law and then you can take actions. In the absence of that you can't violate their rights. I really believe the court acted rightly to declare the rights of the students because their rights were actually violated by the Administration," Atty. Fallah.
Responding to question regarding the rights violated against the students, he said the first right violated, was the students' rights to associate and their rights to education.
He further said if the students were given warning and subjected to free and impartial investigations before actions were taken against them, and they had asked him to be their lawyer, he would have told them their rights were not violated because it was in accordance with the student's handbook.
"We are saying any decision you want to take, it should be backed by law, this is why we have laws and rules, because if we do not have these things in place, the society will be chaotic. When school administrations start to take decisions against students because they do not like the students' leadership elected, it will be a problem. If the court does not put stop to these things, it will create problem in every school. Because administrations will be deciding who will be student leaders and what should be done," the lawyer added.
Atty. Fallah encouraged his adversary to take an appeal to the Supreme Court to enable the full bench of the Court to decide the matter in order to serve as a precedent case for other universities to follow.
"If this case goes to the Supreme Court, I will be happy, let people test the law. It will be a good case where students have taken administration to Court and the case has reached the Supreme Court and the students have become victorious, it will be written down in the Supreme Court opinions. It will become one of the test cases called precedent in law" he said.
Picking Opposition guest speaker sparks saga
Maima A. Thomas, student council President explained that the saga started last year when they won the elections and decided their inauguration program was to be held November 18, 2022 in November after the break, and they wrote to inform administration of their pending program.
"Our College president Mr. Abimelech Paye Gbatu called me to ask who was our guest speaker and when I told him it was Nyonblee Kangar Lawrence, he asked why? And I told him because we were two female candidates and we wanted a female to speak to us. He said no because Senator Nyonblee Kangar Lawrence is an opposition to CDC and cannot serve as our keynote speaker. And then I asked if BCC was a private or public school that needed the consent of the government? He said if I cannot pick someone from the ruling establishment to serve as guest speaker, then Nyonblee Kangar Lawrence won't serve as our guest speaker," she said
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She further said the choosing of Senator Lawrence as their keynote speaker, brought misunderstanding between the students and the administration.
Student Maima said to their utmost surprise while preparing for November 8, the college president put up a memo that their program was no longer on November 18 but on the 11th of November and he issued them a check of L$ 200,000 on November 7, 2023, and they accepted the amount for the program to be held on November 11, 2022.
She said during preparation for their program on November 11, the college President called them again on the eve of their program to ask them to postpone the program because President Weah had pronounced a holiday on November 11 for the census but instead the College issued a Memo announcing that no classes were to be held on that day and told the students verbally that their induction program was postponed for time indefinite.
"Frankly speaking, the administration pushed us to the wall. The administration even went as far as cutting off the electricity, saying the current was President Weah's current, and we were bringing opposition on the campus. Based on this, we invited our parents, civil society organizations, our elders, chiefs and traditional leaders on the campus to dialogue with the administration but the administration never listened to anybody, especially the college president. At the end of the day, he told us only the court could settle this dispute. He pushed us to the wall to take him to court, but it was not our intentions to bring our administration to court or to public ridicule but the administration gave us the go-ahead," she said.
Observers believe that the action of the students not to engage in violence in settling their grievances but use the court is a good example.
