FRIDAY JUNE 7 , 2019 CAYMAN COMPAS S ‘Ice on Ice’ promises sparkly evening Hidden diamonds ar e up for grabs B3 ■ON STAGE ‘The Lion King’‘The Lion King’‘The Lion King’ B CAYMAN WEEKENDER ‘The Lion King’ EDITORIAL | PAGE 4 DO NOT DISMISS THE PUBLIC IN PORT DISCUSSIONS High of 90 Low of 79 Slight with wave heights of 1 to 3 feet. ESTABLISHED 1965 www.caymancompass.com – 75 CENTS – FRIDAY, 7 JUNE 2019 SEVEN MILE BEACH WATERFRONT WALKERS ROAD TOWN CENTRE PLAZA RED BAY Unemployed could be given sargassum role SECURITIES LAW AMENDED TO END REGIME OF ‘EXCLUDED PERSONS’ Parents of special needs students in limbo JAMES WHITTAKER jwhittaker@pinnaclemedialtd.com An army of unemployed Cayman- ians could be put to work clearing un- sightly sargassum weed from the is- land’s beaches. Infrastructure Minister Joey Hew said government was considering pushing for- ward its National Community Enhance- ment programme, known as NiCE, in order to deal with influxes of the foul smelling seaweed. From South Sound to East End, the shore- line around Grand Cayman has been clogged with sargassum for several weeks. Hew said equipment failures had prevented govern- ment from moving it as fast as he would like. Government workers were out at Coe Wood Beach in Bodden Town on Thursday, clearing the weed by hand. Hew said spe- cialist equipment was on order and a task force, involving public works, parks and environment officials, was responsible for managing clean-up efforts. He said government had also sub- contracted private companies to aid the clean-up. Asked by Kenneth Bryan, the legis- lator for Central George Town, if the NICE programme – which periodically recruits unemployed Caymanians for temporary work – could be mobilised, Hew said that option was under discussion. He said officials were formulating MICHAEL KLEIN mklein@pinnaclemedialtd.com Lawmakers approved amendments to the Securities Investment Business Licensing Law that will introduce a regulatory and supervi- sory framework for ‘excluded persons’, which are until now exempt from requiring a license to conduct securities investment business and being regulated by the Cayman Islands Mon- etary Authority. The exempted persons regime is designed to impose a lesser regulatory burden for finan- cial service providers who exclusively serve sophisticated or high-net-worth investors, be- cause those investors can carry out the nec- essary due diligence that is otherwise under- taken by CIMA for licensed entities. The bill debated in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday will require most excluded persons to register with the authority and will subject them to more stringent reporting requirements. The changes come in response to the Carib- bean Financial Action Task Force’s evaluation of Cayman’s anti-money laundering framework and a CIMA review of the excluded persons regime. “The [CIMA] review identified a number of weaknesses and challenges that may pose regulatory and reputational risks to the authority and the islands,” Tara Rivers, minister for financial services, said. The CFATF assessment, published in March 2019, in turn recommended that the Cayman Islands should carry out a comprehensive analysis of sectors that are currently subject to limited supervision, such as excluded persons. In addition, CIMA should gather more information on the size of client assets, business activities, client base and geographic exposure of these securities businesses. New approvals for tutoring centres required from September MARK MUCKENFUSS mmuckenfuss@pinnaclemedialtd.com When Janet Dixon’s daughter was entering Year 3 at Bodden Town Pri- mary, she had already been assessed by the Department of Education Ser- vices as having special education needs. The department recommended she receive additional help. Dixon was told to bring her daughter to school early each morning during breakfast club hours so an occupational ther- apist could work one-on-one with her before class began. Two months passed and Dixon said her daughter told her she was not seeing the specialist and, instead, was just playing with other chil- dren who came early to school. Dixon said she went to meet with the specialist in the early morning. “I went to the class where she was supposed to go,” Dixon said. “The door was locked.” School personnel gave her sur- prising news. “They said, ‘No one ever uses that room,’” she said. And when she asked where the specialist was, “They said, ‘That’s [Department of] Education stuff.’ They didn’t seem to know what was going on. They had no clue.” Dixon said she was told the spe- cialist was out sick. It was not until the end of the school year, Dixon said, that her daughter came home with a note informing Dixon that the specialist had been out on medical leave for the entire year. “They never thought to tell me,” she said. Her daughter had also been assessed as needing a speech therapist. Dixon was told one would visit the school to work with her Workers try to clear an influx of sargassum seaweed off the beach in South Sound last month - PHOTO: ALVARO SEREY PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 12 » PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 12 » PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 »2 LOCAL NEWS FRIDAY, 7 JUNE 2019 • CAYMAN COMPASS Cimboco - A Caribbean Café 94-PASTA (947-2782) Located in the Marquee Plaza The Long Weekend! Brunch & Breakfast til 3pm Saturday, Sunday & Holiday Monday 3.2% -0.4% -7.2% -2.7% 1.2% 1.2% 1.3% 2.7% 2.8% 3.1% 3.0% 20072008200920102011201220132014201520162017 Cayman Islands: Growth in Real GDP 2007 - 2017 Public urged to defend conservation law JAMES WHITTAKER jwhittaker@pinnaclemedialtd.com Environmental cam- paigners are used to battling to save endangered plants and animals. Now they are being told they must fight to save Cayman’s National Con- servation Law. The legislation, passed in 2013, is already under threat, according to National Trust director Nadia Hardie. Hardie, who is on the com- mittee tasked with reviewing the law, urged supporters to speak up when public consul- tation takes place over pos- sible amendments. “If you miss this oppor- tunity, I think this law is in very big trouble,” she told a crowd of around 60 people at an information session for members at the Family Life Centre in George Town on Wednesday evening. Former Environment Min- ister Wayne Panton, who brought the landmark law to the Legislative Assembly in the first place, echoed the call to arms. Speaking from the audi- ence during a question and answer session, Panton said it was important that deci- sion makers heard from en- vironmentalists as well as developers. “If you support the law, go out to every one of your MLAs and tell them …. There are many people that will be expressing views to the contrary and we do not want those folks just to have the sway. Express your views,” he said. The law provides protec- tion for sharks and other en- dangered species, allows for the creation of protected areas, and ensures environ- mental concerns are consid- ered in planning decisions. Developers and govern- ment leaders have raised con- cerns since its inception about its potential impact on infra- structure and development. Hardie said the level of misinformation surrounding the law was “almost farcical”. Gina Ebanks-Petrie, di- rector of the Department of Environment, gave a presen- tation on the law at Wednes- day’s meeting in an effort to clear up some of the most common misunderstandings. She said the conservation council’s powers were actu- ally quite limited. Ebanks-Petrie accepted it could mandate that envi- ronmental impact assess- ments be carried out for cer- tain major developments, but said this power was used sparingly – in less than 1% of cases. She added that those assessments are advisory and their findings are not binding on government. Asked about a recent coastal works application to remove sea grass to develop a tourist-friendly swimming beach on Dart-owned land in the Barkers peninsula, she said this was an example of the limited powers of the council and the Department of Environment. Though the DoE has ad- vised that the plan is unwork- able, would have multiple ad- verse effects and should be rejected, she said Cabinet has unfettered discretion to make its own decision about the application. Ebanks-Petrie said the re- view of the National Con- servation Law “works both ways” and insisted it was open to people to recommend strengthening the legislation. She said it was an “imper- fect law” that was the result of compromise over many dec- ades that had ultimately re- quired multiple amendments to get through the house. “Do we think it could be enhanced?” she asked. “Abso- lutely. It is what it is because that is what our legislators were prepared to accept.” Amid concerns from the audience that government did not appear to share the con- cerns expressed in the room for the environment, Hardie encouraged people to lobby their legislators and to hold them accountable for repre- senting their concerns. “Your MLA is answerable to his constituents first and foremost in a democracy – he or she is answerable to you,” she said. “If not, people have to start voting at the next election for those who do rep- resent their views.” Director of the Department of Environment Gina Ebanks-Petrie addresses the crowd at a National Trust meeting Wednesday. - PHOTO: JAMES WHITTAKER Woman stole to get medicine for child CAROL WINKER cwinker@pinnaclemedialtd.com A woman who pleaded guilty to stealing $9,000 from her employer to get medicine for her child was sentenced last week to four months’ im- prisonment suspended for two years, 80 hours commu- nity service and a full compen- sation order. Brianna Casey Kirchman admitted taking the money in 15 different transactions be- tween 14 Aug. and 31 Aug. 2017. She did so by issuing false customer refunds at the dive shop where she worked. In passing sentence, Mag- istrate Valdis Foldats said dealing with financial pres- sure or paying medical ex- penses are issues many people must deal with. “Turning to crime to lessen one’s burdens cannot be condoned,” he said. One mitigating factor was the child’s illness. The de- fendant had explained that she stole the money to pay for medical treatment. The mag- istrate said she was “stealing ‘enough’ to pay someone, no doubt a charlatan, who pres- sured her and claimed that there was an herbal remedy for her daughter’s condition”. The magistrate agreed with Crown counsel Garcia Kelly that the theft was a breach of trust, but said it was at a medium level of culpability, not a high level. In addition, the thefts were not sophis- ticated and were bound to be found out. He noted that Kirchman had already paid back $4,000 and intended to pay back the rest. This showed her re- morse, he said. “In the normal course of events, breach of trust cases call for a term of immediate imprisonment to ensure that individuals who may be in- clined to commit similar of- fences are deterred, and to mark publicly the gravity of this type of behaviour,” Foldats said. “Exceptional cir- cumstances must exist to over- come this bedrock principle.” He found the defendant’s position as the sole caregiver of the child, and the child’s medical condition did amount to exceptional circumstances. “I stress here that this is a child-centred approach – the court’s focus is on the well- being of the child, not the de- fendant,” the magistrate said. He ordered compensation of US$5,532 and CI$401 within a year or three months’ im- prisonment in default. The defendant has lost her reputation and is now a con- victed thief, he commented. That was part of the price she had to pay; it was a natural consequence of her crime.The islands’ most-trusted news source 3 CAYMAN COMPASS FRIDAY, 7 JUNE 2019 A LUXURY WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENT IN THE PRESTIGIOUS YACHT CLUB COMMUNITY WWW.STONEISLANDCAYMAN.COM PHASE 1 65% SOLD Three full-scale model homes available for viewing BOOK A VIEWING Sales Inquiries (345) 925-6404 | info@stoneislandcayman.com Yacht Drive, just past Vista del Mar The Residences of Stone Island is comprised of 44 waterfront residences built to the highest standards, with 4,500 square feet of open-concept living space. This private gated community boasts an exquisite array of lifestyle amenities; Tennis court expansive infinity edge pool private screening room children’s center waterside owner’s lounge with chef’s kitchen bar and owner’s wine storage gated with 24-hour security BBQ pavilion boardwalk boat docking lush landscaping fitness studio Welcome home to Stone Island.The islands’ most-trusted news source 4 – EDITORIAL – Opinion & Letters The Cayman Compass welcomes comments, opinions and viewpoints from readers. Letters to the editor can be emailed to editor@pinnaclemedialtd.com, submitted via www.caymancompass.com, sent by post or hand-delivered to the Compass office. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY: Caymanian Compass Limited Compass Centre Shedden Road, George Town SEND US YOUR VIEWS OR NEWS: P.O. Box 1365 Grand Cayman KY1-1108, Cayman Islands Telephone: (345) 815-0095 Email: newsdesk@pinnaclemedialtd.com ADVERTISE WITH US: Telephone: (345) 949-5111 Email: sales@pinnaclemedialtd.com Website: www.caymancompass.com PUBLISHER KATHLEEN CAPETTA EXECUTIVE EDITOR PATRICK BRENDEL A MEMBER OF THE INTER-AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION “Give light and the people will find their own way” “The legal advice is very clear. The government should not and need not have any regard to what is now approaching a year-long process of signature collections. It has not risen, the petition, above that standard yet.” – Premier Alden McLaughlin It is a rare occasion when this editorial board finds itself wishing that our political leaders would act more … well … political. Even rarer that we urge them to tell the people what they want to hear. But that is exactly the case following Premier Alden McLaughlin’s public announcement that government is moving full steam head with plans for a new cruise and cargo port in George Town harbour – despite peti- tioners’ assertions that they have collected enough signatures to trigger a referendum. Sometimes the problem is not what one says, but how one says it. The premier’s statements on the issue Wednesday in the Legislative Assembly may have been, strictly speaking, accurate. It was the pre- mier’s phrasing that gave many pause. Take his response to Opposition Leader Arden McLean’s question about petitioners’ announce- ment that they have sufficient signatures to trigger a people-initiated referendum: “The key word in that question is ‘supposedly’. That summarises where that process is. Ten months after the petition was launched, there is still not even a list yet submitted to the Elec- tions Office for verification.” This is true, as we presume was his statement that government has been advised by legal counsel that it needn’t halt forward progress on the planning and pro- curement process unless and until those petitions are submitted and verified. Perhaps in putting the matter so starkly, he intended to convey an impression of prudent caution. But for listeners already concerned about the details of the long-debated project, his responses must have sounded troublingly dismissive. The Cruise Port Referendum Campaign has said it will submit the peti- tions next week. To repeat, this editorial board has taken no position on the project. In the absence of many details, we have been able to offer only conditional support for a cruise berthing pier, provided it could be built quickly to high standards of quality under a reasonable financing arrangement. Our primary concern is the decision- making process be transparent, with plenty of oppor- tunity for public input on the plans. To date, government has not been particularly forthcoming: Public officials have consistently and repeatedly declined to elaborate on plans or cost esti- mates for the project, saying they’ll share that infor- mation once a successful bidder is chosen. In fact, we can’t help but wonder if some petition signers were motivated not by informed opposition to the project, but because they’ve been left in the dark. Now that final bids are being evaluated for a rec- ommendation to be made to Cabinet, we may finally be on the brink of understanding government’s vision for the project. That does not mean officials should summarily dismiss – or be dismissive of – their constit- uents’ desires to be heard. Do not dismiss the public in port discussions FRIDAY, 7 JUNE 2019 • CAYMAN COMPASS The price we pay for GPS M.R. O’CONNOR It has become the most natural thing to do: get in the car, type a destination into a smartphone, and let an algorithm using GPS data show the way. Personal GPS- equipped devices entered the mass market in only the past 15 or so years, but hundreds of millions of people now rarely travel without them. These gadgets are extremely powerful, allowing people to explore unknown places and to avoid getting lost. But they also affect per- ception and judgment. When people are told which way to turn, it relieves them of the need to create their own routes and remember them. They pay less attention to their surroundings. And neu- roscientists can now see that brain behaviour changes when people rely on turn-by- turn directions. In a study published in Nature Communications in 2017, researchers asked sub- jects to navigate a virtual simulation of London’s Soho neighbourhood and moni- tored their brain activity, spe- cifically the hippocampus, which is integral to spatial navigation. Those who were guided by directions showed less activity in this part of the brain than participants who navigated without the device. The hippocampus allows us to orient in space and know where we are by creating cog- nitive maps. It also allows us to recall events from the past, what is known as episodic memory. And, remarkably, it is the part of the brain that neuroscientists believe gives us the ability to imagine our- selves in the future. Studies have long shown the hippocampus is highly susceptible to experience. Meanwhile, atrophy in that part of the brain is linked to devastating conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder and Alzhei- mer’s disease. What is not known is the effect of GPS use on hip- pocampal function when em- ployed daily over long periods of time. Javadi said the con- clusions he draws from recent studies is that “when people use tools such as GPS, they tend to engage less with nav- igation. Therefore, brain area responsible for navigation is less used, and consequently their brain areas involved in navigation tend to shrink”. How people navigate natu- rally changes with age. Nav- igation aptitude appears to peak around age 19, and after that, most people slowly stop using spatial memory strate- gies to find their way, relying on habit instead. But neuro- scientist Véronique Bohbot has found that using spatial- memory strategies for nav- igation correlates with in- creased grey matter in the hippocampus at any age. She thinks that interventions fo- cussed on improving spatial memory by exercising the hippocampus – paying atten- tion to the spatial relation- ships of places in our envi- ronment – might help offset age-related cognitive im- pairments or even neurode- generative diseases. Done safely, getting lost could be a good thing. Over the past four years, I’ve spoken with master navi- gators from different cultures who showed me that prac- ticing navigation is a pow- erful form of engagement with the environment that can inspire a greater sense of stewardship. Finding our way on our own – using per- ception, empirical observation and problem-solving skills – forces us to attune ourselves to the world. And by turning our attention to the physical landscape that sustains and connects us, we can nourish ‘topophilia’, a sense of attach- ment and love for place. You’ll never get that from waiting for a satellite to tell you how to find a shortcut. M.R. O’Connor is a journalist who writes about science, technology and ethics, and is the author, most recently, of ‘Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World’. © 2019, Special to The Washington Post LETTER TO THE EDITOR Don’t discourage recycling habits Recycling is growing in popularity worldwide, with numerous countries imple- menting waste management policies into the daily lives of their citizens. Cayman is home to over 135 different nationalities, many of which have already established ef- fective recycling systems. However, despite Cayman’s welcoming warmth and kind- ness, this island is not par- ticularly welcoming to these beneficial recycling habits. In the past few months, a group of classmates has been analysing different demo- graphic and social factors that encourage people to recycle. As part of our research, we conducted a survey of waste management habits. We in- terviewed around 150 people at grocery stores, restaurants, Camana Bay and other public places. Of the people sur- veyed, 46.5% of those who do not currently recycle have dis- continued their habits since moving to Cayman. Our island’s waste man- agement programme needs to be prioritised. Currently, we are deterring people from continuing to recycle, causing the most detrimental part of our island, the dump, to ex- pand at a rapid rate. Cayman is lagging be- hind. A plethora of developed countries are working hard on the race against time to improve their waste manage- ment systems. Our govern- ment needs to support, not hinder, the beneficial habits citizens bring with them from where they previously resided. Incentives and sup- port, such as recycling bins outside homes, accessible in- formation on recycling and transparency within the pro- gramme, are all things that Cayman should look fa- vourably upon. Protect our future. Ava Hider and Arielle Farley Grade 11, Cayman International SchoolThe islands’ most-trusted news source 5 CAYMAN COMPASS • FRIDAY, 7 JUNE 2019 PROMOTION RUNS JUN,10 - AUG,30 2019 SUMMER STARTS HERE! FUEL UP WITH RUBiS AND WIN BIG! Terms & CONDITONS APPLY, for more detail VISIT: RUBISCAYMANISLANDS.COM The islands’ most-trusted news source 6 FRIDAY, 7 JUNE 2019 • CAYMAN COMPASS daughter regularly. A discharge report, dated 31 Oct. 2016, said her daughter was seen weekly in the 2015-2016 school year “for speech and language therapy”. But Dixon said no such therapist met with her daughter. An assessment by a psychiatrist, recommended by a Department of Education Services evaluator, also never happened, she said. She decided to seek help elsewhere. “I let government know she wasn’t coming back to school,” she said. She sought help that summer at the Cayman Learning Centre, one of several tutoring and instructional centres in Cayman. When the reg- ular school year began in the fall, Dixon kept her daughter at the learning centre. Now, however, she and other parents who have gone outside of the system to find the help their children need, are being told the learning centres they rely on may no longer be allowed to serve their children. Parents face dilemma The situation boils down to this: Many parents who have chil- dren with serious learning disabili- ties such as dyslexia, attention def- icit and autism, say the government schools are not equipped to provide adequate support for their children. These same parents say private schools, which often have impacted enrolment already, have limited re- sources for dealing with special needs children. Some say they man- aged to enrol their children in pri- vate schools only to be told their child’s needs were too great for the school to handle. Due to changes resulting from the 2016 Education Law, tutoring centres, which were previously al- lowed to serve five students full- time, are now strictly limited to supplemental support for home- schooled children of no more than two hours per day unless the cen- tres apply and are approved to op- erate as an ‘educational institution’. A letter from the Education Council, dated 1 June 2018, effec- tively delayed that rule until the start of the 2019-2020 school year in September. There are numerous tutoring ser- vices across Cayman, but the four major ones – Cayman Learning Centre, Clever Fish, Footsteps and High Achievement Academy – are most affected. All are in the process of applying, or appealing denied ap- plications, for status as full-time ed- ucational institutions. The letter extending that orig- inal deadline was signed by Educa- tion Council Chairman Dan Scott. It said that centres receiving approval as educational institutions would “be granted the authority to accom- modate more than five full-time stu- dents … on a full-time basis”. Scott did not respond to several requests for comment. The Ministry of Education also did not respond to questions on the issue by deadline. But if the tutoring centres do not receive that approval to continue serving these special needs stu- dents, some of the parents utilising those services say there will be no- where for their children to go. While their children are classified as home- schooled, these parents say it takes specialised knowledge or training to provide the education their chil- dren need, skills the parents do not have. If there are no school options, they say, they have little choice but to send their children off island to receive appropriate help, or move their entire families away from the Cayman Islands. Some have already done so. Caymanian Deirdre Billes ended up sending her son abroad because the school system in Cayman could not meet his needs, she said. “My kid had multiple learning challenges,” Billes said. “He’s on the autism spectrum. He’s so dis- tractible and so distracting [to other kids].” Billes said she enrolled her son as a preschooler in Cayman Inter- national School. It did not go well, so she homeschooled him during his kindergarten year. She then tried placing him in Hope Academy, a school designed to handle children with learning challenges. Officials at Hope, she said, told her they did not have the resources to help him. Billes turned to Cayman Learning Centre. “If this centre wasn’t here, I don’t know what we would have done,” she said. “And there’s so many more kids like [him].” In the three-to-one student- teacher ratio at the learning centre, she said, her son did well. But when she got wind of changes that might happen with the new education law, and saw the possibility of the tu- toring centre option being cut off, she decided to be proactive and began looking outside the country, first in Switzerland and later in the United States, settling on Brehm Prep School in Illinois. Her son, now 14, has thrived at the school. “He’s going to be an independent young man and I didn’t know if he ever would be,” Billes said. Some families have left Susie Bodden is executive leader of the Special Needs Foundation, which offers respite programmes for families with special needs stu- dents, as well as helping to integrate those students into mainstream classrooms through teacher training and individual support. Bodden said Billes’ situation is not unique. She knows of families who have left the island because they saw no other option for their children. “We have Caymanian families that are in that situation,” she said. “Cayman families should not have to leave their homes.” Bodden said she thinks stricter requirements for the tutoring cen- tres – those needed for them to qualify as schools – could be a good thing. But she also would like to see them continue to fill what she sees as a gap in the education system. Most schools, she said, do not pro- vide the necessary assistance some students need for learning defi- cits. Dixon’s experience of not get- ting the promised assistance for her daughter did not surprise her. “I’ve definitely heard that from other parents,” she said. And, she said, if the schools cannot do it, what other option do parents have? For many this is a last resort. “I hope someone is thinking about what’s going to happen to these kids,” she said. “For some of our parents, the concern is ‘What on Earth do we do? Our children have already failed elsewhere.’ It’s not that they haven’t tried other things.” Kami Butcher, 46, has a 10-year- old son, and said his only op- tion is the tutoring centres. He at- tended a private school for a short time, which she called a “complete disaster”. School officials, she said, eventually told her they could not accommodate her son. A former psychologist who works for a holistic health company in Cayman, Butcher said she is not equipped to effectively educate her son in a homeschool setting. “This is not something a parent can do,” she said, noting that it takes specialised skills and educa- tion to work with the attention def- icit hyperactivity disorder and dys- lexia her son is diagnosed with. Finding the tutoring centre, she said was a godsend. “It’s night and day,” she said of his progress compared to when he was in private school. “He would come home and break down crying almost every day,” she said of his time in the private school. “He said, ‘I asked the teacher, but she won’t help me. No one will help me.’ It was a horrible experience.” Now, she said, “He’s reading. He’s writing – that was a hateful ac- tivity for him because of his dys- lexia. He comes home and the first thing he does is sit down and do his homework. He’ll do homework for two hours.” She’s fearful of what might be taken from him. “Without this programme, he’s, for lack of a better word, screwed,” she said. “He needs to be on the path to reintegration (into a mainstream classroom). Without a program like this, it’s not going to happen.” She called the implementation of the new regulations silly. “It makes no sense and it’s dis- ruptive for the kids,” she said. “It’s not right. We’re actually solving a problem here.” Billes said she does not under- stand the thinking behind the reg- ulations that would, in her view, eliminate the only choice some par- ents have for educating their spe- cial needs children in Cayman. She called the current regulations “too rigid”. “It’s like you’re given a kid that’s an uphill battle and it’s made more steep” by the regulations, she said. “It’s like climbing a cliff instead of climbing a hill.” An open letter Billes posted a letter to Educa- tion Minister Juliana O’Connor-Con- nolly on the Facebook page for the Cayman Advocates for Student-Cen- tered Education. She sent a copy of the letter to the minister as an email, she said. “Tutoring centres offering ho- meschooling during regular school hours have filled a wide gap and provide a level of education that is very needed,” she wrote. “The par- ents of children still using a tu- toring centre … are very concerned that they be able to stick with what is working best for their student.” She argued that having the cen- tres seek the status of an educa- tional institution, when they are limited to five full-time students, is economically impractical. And she requested that the minister meet with concerned parents re - garding the issue. She said neither O’Connor-Con- nolly nor anyone from the ministry responded to her 22 Jan. letter. Billes’s letter came out of a meeting held by the Special Needs Foundation and, according to the letter, attended by two representa- tives from the Department of Ed- ucation, administrator Errol Levy and Barbara Peace-Ebanks, a senior school improvement officer. Carrie Lackey attended the meeting. She said she thought there was a disconnect between the de- partment representatives and others in attendance. She described a meeting where some parents in the room were in tears and there was a feeling of resistance on the part of the Department of Education of- ficials. She said Levy seemed dis- missive and placed blame on the tu- toring centres. “He said it’s the tutoring centres’ fault because they didn’t apply” for school status, she said. But one tutoring centre official said it was only in recent months that the government produced the forms that would have allowed them to make that application. Lackey is one of those parents who ended up sending her daughter abroad for school. The 15-year-old attends a private school in Hal- ifax, Canada. An psycho-educational evalua- tion Lackey had done by the Miami Counseling & Resource Center as- sessed her daughter has having ADHD and dyslexia. Her score in mathematics was in the 20th per- centile for her age group. Her written language and reading per- centiles were in the single digits. After Lackey enrolled her daughter at Clever Fish tutorial centre, she said, she “excelled beyond our wildest expectations”. When it looked as if that option would be taken away, Lackey asked education department officials what they suggested. “They said she could go to John Gray [High School],” she said. Lackey disagreed, but rather than engage in a protracted battle, she decided to go offshore. “She’s doing great,” she said of her daughter. “The school is amazing, but it’s $50,000 a year and we’ve lost our daughter for four years. It’s pretty tough.” The Special Needs Foundation’s Bodden, who worked as an educa- tional psychologist for government for six years and taught school in England, said unless the problem is fixed, more parents will face the same dilemma. The real answer, she said, is a change in the way special needs students are seen and treated. She’s a strong proponent of main- streaming such students. “The ideal situation is that all schools are inclusive. If you accept the idea that all human beings have equal value, the schools would treat children as such. Once we accept that, then you have inclusion.” Parents of special needs students in limbo If the tutoring centres do not receive approval to continue serving these special needs students, some of the parents utilising those services say there will be nowhere for their children to go. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 121 Number of students being homeschooled 4 Number of learning centres affected 5 Current maximum full-time students per centre Children with special educational needs often need the kind of one-on-one attention that can be difficult to receive in a regular school setting.The islands’ most-trusted news source 7 CAYMAN COMPASS • FRIDAY, 7 JUNE 2019 Michael Joseph Broker / Owner Stefan Prior Broker / Owner PO BOX 460, GRAND CAYMAN CAYMAN ISLANDS, KY1-1106 + 1 345 749 4663 INFO@PROPERTYCAYMAN.COM PROPERTYCAYMAN.COM Dear Cayman Life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change and we’re welcoming some very exciting changes to better serve you. Property Cayman would like to formally announce that we are moving to new o ces at Fort 51, a brand-new building (next to the Town Hall) right in the heart of George Town. Like all good things, our time at RE/MAX has come to an end and we’d like to thank Kim, James and all of our colleagues for many happy years working side-by-side. For most of us, buying or selling a house is one of the biggest decisions that you will ever make and it’s something we don’t take lightly. We are extremely passionate about what we do and take great pride in providing the best service possible for our clients, our industry and for Cayman. What can you expect from us at Property Cayman? Full transparency, relentless hard work, real estate education and always putting you before the commission. On behalf of the entire team, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your unwavering support over the years. We wouldn’t be where we are today without the support of the Cayman community. Please take this as your o cial invitation to check out our new o ces, sit down and talk about your real estate needs or just enjoy a co ee from our neighbours at Bluestone Lane cafe when our doors open in a few weeks. We promise to always tell it how it is; with good, honest advice at the heart of everything we do. Yours in real estate, GROUND FLOOR, 51 FORT STREET8 LOCAL NEWS FRIDAY, 7 JUNE 2019 • CAYMAN COMPASS Barefoot Beach eco-resort gets planning approval MARK MUCKENFUSS mmuckenfuss@pinnaclemedialtd.com The Central Planning Au- thority announced approval of the construction of a new eco-resort on Barefoot Beach in East End on Thursday. The NCB Group resort would spread 83 single- storey units over 10 acres of land off the Queen’s Highway. “I think it’s about time we get something on this site,” said Central Planning Authority Chairman A.L. Thompson. “It’s been talked about for years.” NCB Group project man- ager Mark Sorrill, described the proposed $20 million re- sort as low impact. He noted that the land had been zoned for a 550-room hotel, but the company was only building 83. “What we’re striving for is a new type of resort that is called in the business ‘ex- periential,’” Sorrill told the board. The completed pro- ject would “allow a more au- thentic experience of a nat- ural site”, he said. Architectural mock-ups showed a scattering of solar- panel topped buildings nes- tled among foliage, only a few of which had beach- front access. “We’re trying to make it as low impact on the site as possible,” Sorrill said. The application NCB Group filed with the planning authority said the project would be environmentally sensitive, with “high-tech super-insulated modular wall panels of the cottages and common areas, to the geo-grid gravel hardstanding areas, and green-tech provi- sion of utilities, such as solar power, rainwater harvesting and sewage recycling”. The buildings themselves, the proposal says, will “blend into the landscape. Deep shaded deck/porches and other features draw on Cayman ar- chitectural forms, but in a sim- plistic, subtle, and modern, contemporary fashion.” The resort will feature a sea pool, a spa, a gym and two restaurants. Paved walk- ways between the units will be wide enough to accommo- date golf carts. The development would take up 850 feet of frontage on the highway. The plan- ning board considered con- cerns raised by the National Roads Authority on whether a deceleration lane was long enough and whether appro- priate sidewalks were part of the plan. Members of the board said they thought the pro- posed parking spaces and clearances might not be up to regulations, and they asked about public beach access. Regulations require six feet of access for every 200 feet of coastline. Matthew Wight, NCB Group’s managing director, told the board he expected to be able to accommodate that space, particularly on the east side of the resort. “We’ve tried to make that an interactive public space,” he said, where beachgoers might also want to pay to use the resort gym or dine in its restaurants. “The lobby is going to be public as well and there’s ample parking there.” Several other developers have proposed building re- sorts on the site over the years. The most recent was a planned Mandarin Ori- ental hotel in the early 2000s. Dart bought the 20-acre parcel in 2015 for $10 million. The developers, the NCB Group, and an un- named investor are leasing 10 acres of that parcel for a maximum of 10 years. Man jailed for 20 months for 8 separate incidents SPENCER FORDIN sfordin@pinnaclemedialtd.com A man was sentenced to 20 months in prison Thursday for several Summary Court offences that occurred over more than two years. Royce Leon Cornwall, rep- resented by defence counsel John Furniss, was sentenced for eight separate incidents and four additional counts of failing to surrender to custody. Perhaps the most se- rious offence, said Magis- trate Grace Donalds, was a common assault on his ex- wife that left her with perma- nent damage to her left eye. Magistrate Donalds said that Cornwall’s former spouse had told probation officers that he can be “a really good person” when he’s sober. Magistrate Donalds said Cornwall’s ex-wife was pre- pared to accept an apology he had made in court and that she hoped he would get the help he needs with alcohol abuse. “The court has a duty not only to protect your former spouse, but also the public in general,” said Magistrate Donalds. Cornwall triggered a sus- pended sentence of nine months for previously ad- judicated domestic vio- lence issues, and Magistrate Donalds ordered that it be served consecutively with the new offences. He was sentenced to six months for the 2017 common assault on his wife in which he punched her in the left eye, and another four months concurrent for a separate common assault that encom- passed charges for threats to kill and causing fear or prov- ocation of violence. Cornwall was sentenced to a month in prison and dis- qualified from holding a driv- er’s licence for a year for a se- ries of vehicular crimes that included driving without being licensed, driving without insurance, using a ve- hicle without a certificate of roadworthiness and misuse of a disabled person’s badge. He was also sentenced to a month in prison for taking conch above the prescribed daily limit and taking a spec- imen from a protected area. Cornwall was also sen- tenced for refusing to give his name and address, disorderly conduct, being drunk and disorderly, criminal trespass and multiple counts of failing to surrender to custody. Magistrate Donalds said he would receive credit for five months he had served while on remand. Barefoot Beach, off the Queen’s Highway in East End, will be the home of new 83-unit eco-resort. - PHOTO: ALVARO SEREY9 LOCAL NEWS Opposition legislators missed out on an anti-cor- ruption seminar this week be- cause their invites were sent to the wrong email addresses. ‘Save the date invita- tions’ were sent to the mem- bers’ non-operational ‘gov. ky’ email addresses, local organisers of the event have confirmed. The clarification follows media reports that no elected officials showed up for the opening day keynote address from Baroness Patricia Scot- land at the regional anti- corruption conference being held at the Cayman Mar- riott Beach Resort earlier this week. Governor Martyn Roper and Attorney Gen- eral Samuel Bulgin did at- tend the event. Deborah Bodden, man- ager of the commissions sec- retariat, said in a statement that the mix-up in relation to the opposition group was an unintentional adminis- trative error. The statement was first released in response to ques- tions from the news blog Cayman Marl Road and was later included in a press re- lease from the opposition. Opposition leader Arden McLean said in a statement, “although this mistake re- sulted in a missed opportu- nity for the Opposition to be involved in an important dis- cussion on good governance for our country, we want to assure the organizers and the public that this Opposi- tion remains committed to fighting corruption, and we fully support the Commis- sion in its efforts”. Leader of the Opposition Arden McLean CAYMAN COMPASS • FRIDAY, 7 JUNE 2019 Churchill’s Funeral Home We have been asked to announce the passing of Mr. Glenn Powery, who passed away on Monday, May 20, 2019. A Thanksgiving Service will be at Wesleyan Holiness Church, West Bay on Saturday, June 08, 2019 at 3:00 p.m. Viewing: 2:00 –3:00 p.m. Interment at: North West Point Cemetery Condolences can be registered at churchillsfuneralhome.com Churchill’s Funeral Home e family of the late Mr. Roberto Seymour would like to thank all who contributed & o ered condolences in their time of grief: HSA Chemo Unit and other doctors and sta of HSA.Mango Tree Restaurant, First Assembly of God, Pastor BobbTorrance, Pastor Dwight Wright, pallbearers, guest book attendant, Seafaring Fellowmen & Association, Meals on Wheel, Cancer Society, Mr. Kenrick Webster of Webster’s Tours, Prison O cers & Mrs. Claire Range, Pastor Clayton Barbosa Miranda, Jean Solomon and Genevieve Tomlinson Powell.Cayman Islands Government, friends and family. May God Bless you all. Churchill’s Funeral Home We have been asked to announce the passing of Mrs. Beverly AdmaBanks, who passed away on Saturday, June 01, 2019. Details of a Thanksgiving Service will be announced at a later date. Condolences can be registered at churchillsfuneralhome.com sing of 2019 l b rchillsfuneralhome.co The Family Of The Late Condolences can be registered at boddenfuneralservices.com & Bodden Funeral Service Facebook page. Robert Barron regret to announce his passing on Friday, 24 May, 2019. Mr. Barron will be repatriated to the United States of America. Churchill’s Funeral Home We have been asked to announce the passing of Mr. Osmond Mayhew, who passed away on Tuesday, June 04, 2019. Details of a Thanksgiving Service will be announced at a later date. Condolences can be registered at churchillsfuneralhome.com The Family of the Late Carlene McTaggart regret to announce her passing on Thursday, 23 May 2019. A service of Thanksgiving will be held at 3:00 p.m. Monday, 10 June 2019 at the First Baptist Church, Crewe Rd. Interment will follow at the Prospect Cemetery. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Cayman Islands Humane Society or The Pines Retirement Home. Condolences can be registered at www.boddenfuneralservices.com & Bodden Funeral Service Facebook page Churchill’s Funeral Home We have been asked to announce the passing of Mr. George Leo Kelly, who passed away on Monday, June 03, 2019. Details of a Thanksgiving Service will be announced at a later date. Condolences can be registered at churchillsfuneralhome.com Churchill’s Funeral Home We have been asked to announce the passing of Jehu Blessing McGuire, who passed away on Sunday, June 02, 2019. Jehu Blessing McGuire will be repatriated to Trinidad and Tobago. Condolences can be registered at churchillsfuneralhome.com sing of 2019 ted t rchillsfuneralhome.co The Family of the Late Ashton Millwood regret to announce his passing on Sunday, 2 June 2019. A service of Thanksgiving will be held at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, 15 June 2019 at the Webster Memorial United Church. Viewing will be held from 12:00 p.m. prior to the service. Interment will follow at the New Bodden Town Cemetery. Bus service will be available from Eastern Ave. Texaco/Rubis with pick at 11:00 a.m. Condolences can be registered at www.boddenfuneralservices.com & Bodden Funeral Service Facebook page Virtual assets brought under anti-money laundering rules MICHAEL KLEIN mklein@pinnaclemedialtd.com In another piece of leg- islation dealing with the fallout from the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force’s negative review of Cayman’s anti-money laundering re- gime, lawmakers approved several amendments to the Proceeds of Crime Law, in- cluding a definition of virtual assets for anti-money laun- dering purposes. The bill defines virtual as- sets as a “digital representa- tion of value that can be dig- itally traded or transferred, and can be used for payment or investment purposes”. It considers financial ser- vices related to the sale, transfer or administration of virtual assets, such as cryp- tocurrencies like bitcoin, to be relevant financial busi- ness that is subject to anti- money laundering laws and regulations. This applies also to token sales and initial coin offerings. Virtual assets were not part of the CFATF assess- ment, but were recently brought into scope by the Caribbean affiliate of the anti-money laundering standard setter. Attorney General Samuel Bulgin confirmed during the debate on Wednesday that government is also currently working on drafting an ap- propriate legislative frame- work for virtual assets. A change to the bill at the committee stage introduced property developments and property investments and the subsequent sale of properties without the use of a real es- tate agent or broker as a rel- evant financial business sub- ject to anti-money laundering laws and regulations. Other amendments ad- dress recommendations made by the CFATF in relation to certain deficiencies in the ex- isting legislation. One amend- ment brings cash transaction reports, wire transfer reports and threshold-based declara- tions under the duties of the Financial Reporting Authority. To satisfy the requirement that the relevant authori- ties cooperate and coordinate their activities on anti-money laundering, the bill further makes the Anti-Corruption Commission a member of the Anti-Money Laundering Steering Group as well as the Interagency Coordina- tion Committee. The amendments to the law allow the Cayman Is- lands to bring countermeas- ures against countries that are blacklisted by the FATF and treat them as high- risk countries. Deputy Leader of the Op- position Alva Suckoo said he supported the bill, but noted that the Opposition was pre- sented with a slew of last- minute amendments to the bill which made it difficult to debate the technicalities. Email mix-up leaves opposition out in the cold TOO MANY CONCH TAKEN TOO MANY TIMES CAROL WINKER cwinker@pinnaclemedialtd.com A man with a suspended sentence hanging over his head for illegally taking conch had that sentence ac- tivated when he committed two more sets of offences of the same kind. Eladio Chesley Brown, of West Bay, was jailed for 12 months for taking ma- rine life in the Barkers and Rum Point areas on three different occasions. The last time was on 16 Sept. 2018, after he offended on 31 May 2018. “Nothing could per- suade me to suspend his sentence after so short a time after the May of- fences,” Magistrate Kirsty- Ann Gunn said last week. “I don’t have a choice. A message must be sent,” she told attorney John Furniss, who spoke on Brown’s behalf. The first offence oc- curred at Rum Point, when officers observed Brown and another man in a boat. The officers signalled for the boat to stop, but it did not. Instead, the men threw 20 conch overboard. They were arrested and pleaded guilty to taking the conch from a protected zone. On that occasion, the magistrate told the man he was plundering the very re- source he as a Caymanian should be helping to protect. Brown, now 50, replied at the time that he had not understood but now he did. On that basis, he received a sentence of six months, suspended for two years. In May 2018, he was found with 31 conch from a protected area. In September, he was seen removing conch from the water and placing them in a boat. Officers found him with 43 conch and seven lobster. The magistrate. then ac- tivated the six-month sus- pended sentence and im- posed another six months for the second offence. When released, he will have a six- month sentence hanging over his head for the third offence, she confirmed.Next >