Beyond the call of duty
Long-serving St Elizabeth policewomen get Mother’s Day honour for adopting abandoned children
Published:Tuesday | May 14, 2024 | 12:09 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Detective Corporal Pearline Simmonds and Corporal Karen Austin were honoured by their commanding officer of the St Elizabeth Police Division Superintendent Coleridge Minto on Sunday for the role they continue to play in adopting and caring for abandoned children they’ve encountered while carrying out their duties.
On Mother’s Day, the policewomen were celebrated for going beyond their call of duty in being mothers to children who need care and protection. They were also presented with plaques and other gifts from Floyd Green, member of parliament for St Elizabeth South Western, and educator Miranda Wellington, the Opposition People’s National Party candidate in that constituency.
At the ceremony held at the Black River Police Station to celebrate Mother’s Day, Superintendent Minto announced that the St Elizabeth police will continue to honour mothers and women who have gone beyond the boundaries of policing on Mother’s Day.
“These two women are being honoured because their stories are outstandingly remarkable,” he said.
“These mothers went beyond the call of duty and assisted children over many years, and made their home a home for children who they came in contact with during the course of their duties,” Minto said.
“Having heard their stories, we felt it important to recognise them on Mother’s Day for the good deed that they did and we are indeed excited to celebrate with them and certainly all the mothers across the parish of St Elizabeth.”
Simmonds, who joined the Jamaica Constabulary Force 31 years ago, was honoured particularly for her role in adopting a 13-year-old victim of incest, who was reportedly impregnated by her father; and for rescuing a foreign national who was a victim of human trafficking.
Opened up her house to children
Biologically, Simmonds is the mother of two girls. However, in 2002, and after nine years of service, her unwavering love for her work and children took wings and she started to open up her house, to at least three other children.
“I took them at a tender age and I remember a 13-year-old who came by the station and reported that her father had impregnated her. She was about four or five months pregnant, [and] taken here [Black River Police Station] by concerned citizens and I investigated the matter. They said she had nowhere to go so I took her to my home as part of my family,” Simmonds told The Gleaner on Mother’s Day.
She recalled that after adopting her, the pregnant teenager gave birth to a baby boy, and she made sure that the youngster continued her education. She was enrolled at Black River High School in St Elizabeth and later graduated. She has moved on and is now living in the Corporate Area.
“There was another 13-year-old child that was trafficked to Jamaica from another country and when I detected the matter I interviewed her, but because of the language barrier I had to get an interpreter to interpret for her,” said Simmonds.
Further, she said following the interview process she convinced her inspector not to further agonise her by placing her in custody, given that she was a victim of human trafficking.
“When I finished interviewing her I said to the inspector, ‘it is not fair as a victim to be in custody, could I take her home’, and she said I was taking a risk because she is in custody,” the detective police corporal shared.
Simmonds stated that she managed to convince her boss and took home the then 13-year-old child, pointing out that based on her observation, the teenager was not a person who would abscond.
She added that her adopted daughter is now a Jamaican citizen, and now they that she has grown into an adult they keep in touch as often as possible.
Corporal Austin hails from Clarendon and is the biological mother of four children. One now serves as a police officer. Austin was honoured chiefly for her role in rescuing and adopting a female student from the Santa Cruz marketplace.
With 30 years service to the JCF Austin, in 2012, while on duty found a schoolgirl abandoned in Santa Cruz and eventually took her home after several failed attempts to get her mother to take her back, and also not being able to get a place for her at several children’s homes.
Austin’s way of extending her heart and home to abandoned children started 18 years after she enrolled in the police force. At the time she adopted one child, and assisted in housing a mother and her three children in the privacy and comfort of her family home.
“This child was seen in a reputable school uniform, a school that you had to have good GSAT [Grade Six Achievement Test) grades. And for her to be at that school I understand that she would have done well in her exam and so when I saw her in the situation I interviewed her, found out that she has problems at home, the mother refused to take her back so I ended up being her mother. I kept her until she had gone through all her schools,” Austin shared.
“The child that I adopted, I kept her until she finished high school at Bishop Gibson, she went to the Ebony Park Academy and then on to CASE (College of Agricultural Science and Education) where she graduated. She is now overseas working and I am proud to be a part of her life,” she continued.