Fr Darke taught Maths at St Stanislaus; was never a political activist

Dear Editor,
I applaud Mr Bisram for upholding the values he and his colleagues suffered for during the Burnham era. It is unfortunate that the passage of time makes memories uncertain, so you were right to correct him on the minor points.

Fr Darke was indeed a Maths teacher at St Stanislaus College for as long as I could remember up to the time of his death. He never taught Chemistry as a separate subject. I was head of the Science Department and a Chemistry teacher at that time. It is possible that some of my students who were part of the Georgetown protest mentioned that their Chemistry teacher was very sympathetic to the plight of the JC Chandisingh students, and that Mr Bisram somehow later associated the murdered Fr Darke with Chemistry.

Fr Darke was never a political activist – perish the thought. He was a photographer, and it was as a photographer for the Catholic Standard that he died. I feel I must clear his name from any ‘taint’ of such activism.

I take this opportunity to commend Headmaster Cleveland Thomas for going all out to carry out the policies of the Ministry of Education and for heroically standing up for the principles of teaching where those policies were deficient. Can’t the TSC see that and point it out to the Minister?

Yours faithfully,
Alfred Bhulai