‘SUNSHINE’ FAILED BY STATE AGENCIES – PRINCIPAL SAYS
Even at the funeral, questions continued to be raised about how an eight-year-old girl died after she was left at the home of her stepfather in Portland, in September.
Eight-year-old Vinice “Sunshine” Burke of Comfort Castle, Portland was laid to rest on Sunday, more than ten weeks after she died under still unexplained circumstances. It is reported that on Friday, September 22, Vinice was left to be picked up at her stepfather’s house at Baptist Avenue, Port Antonio. He was outdoors making furniture and when he went inside he saw the girl with a plastic bag over her face.
Unresponsive, Vinice was taken to the Port Antonio hospital where she was pronounced dead.
It was a tearful affair at the Comfort Castle Seventh Day Adventist Church on Sunday as mourners wept bitterly and others with teary eyes gave tributes in song and word.
Teary-eyed principal Dalmain Moore in his tribute recalled his last time with “Sunshine” on that fateful Friday evening when they travelled down to Port Antonio from school and he left her for her mother’s care. He lamented the lack of response from the Ministry of Education and Youth, and the Child, Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA). “I was hopeful that the post-mortem would have identified something so that at least as a family we could find closure but it returned it was inconclusive, but I realised yet again we have been failed by the agents of the state. In addition to the other agencies that we have like the CDA, CPFSA, CISOCA (The Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse) I have never seen any representative of any of those organizations who are brand name to protect the children of this country. I have never seen any of them coming up to offer support, or even to investigate.”
(Teachers take forward floral tributes for Vinice)
He said he wondered about the level of investigation that went into this matter since the child was not living by herself.
Moore in closing encouraged parents to keep a close eye on their children as they are responsible and we have to be responsible.
Marcia Hamilton one of Vinice’s teachers told how she came to be called Sunshine. Ms Hamilton said Vinice “was a happy, loving child with a loving radiant personality who exuberated joy and cheerfulness evidenced by her radiant smile which epitomises a sunflower in bloom that’s how the name ‘Sunshine’ came about”.
The workers at the school gave sunflowers that were handed to the principal who passed them to a weeping mother, Janice Percy. Students from the school sang “You’re My Sunshine”.
