In­dar­jit Seu­raj

Come­di­enne Rachel Price was de­scribed as a "sor­ry ex­cuse for a moth­er," af­ter she re­act­ed to a teacher who at­tempt­ed to dis­ci­pline her daugh­ter. "I told her that is the rea­son why your daugh­ter is the way she is, be­cause you are a sor­ry ex­cuse for a moth­er," Michelle Camp­bell tes­ti­fied yes­ter­day. Camp­bell, a teacher at Bish­op Anstey High School on Keate Street, Port-of-Spain, said she made the com­ments af­ter Price shout­ed sev­er­al ex­ple­tives at her.

As the wit­ness tes­ti­fied yes­ter­day be­fore Se­nior Mag­is­trate Lu­ci­na Car­de­nas-Ra­goo­nanan in the Port-of-Spain Fourth (A) Court, Price sat in the pris­on­er's dock lis­ten­ing to the al­le­ga­tions against her.

Price is charged with as­sault­ing Camp­bell and us­ing ob­scene lan­guage to the an­noy­ance of oth­ers.

The of­fences are al­leged to have tak­en place on No­vem­ber 16, 2010, at the Bish­op Anstey High School. Con­sta­ble Nigel Sanker laid the charge. Camp­bell, of Rose Av­enue, Ma­coya Gar­dens, dur­ing her tes­ti­mo­ny yes­ter­day, said Price re­act­ed neg­a­tive­ly when she was told her daugh­ter was be­ing rep­ri­mand­ed for "rude con­duct."

"When I said that, the de­fen­dant (Price) slow­ly rose from her seat and be­gan to curse," Camp­bell said.

Price, ac­cord­ing to the wit­ness, be­came en­raged when she was told her daugh­ter Carmyen Price-Awai was about to be giv­en a "pink slip" for be­ing rude. Camp­bell said when she warned Price to de­sist from us­ing ob­scen­i­ties on the school com­pound, it on­ly served to en­rage her fur­ther, and the in­ci­dent es­ca­lat­ed in­to a phys­i­cal con­fronta­tion. "Then she grabbed me by the col­lar of my blouse and she at­tempt­ed to throw the pieces of pa­per in­to my cloth­ing," Camp­bell said.

Just be­fore that, she said, Price reached across, grabbed the pink slip from her hand and tore it to pieces. Af­ter this, the wit­ness said, she re­mind­ed the de­fen­dant she could write an­oth­er pink slip and put it on her daugh­ter's file. "She then be­gan threat­en­ing to beat me... She point­ed her fin­gers at my face and made a fist as if to hit me," Camp­bell said. The con­fronta­tion on­ly stopped when a male com­pan­ion of Price stepped in to sep­a­rate them. Camp­bell said even af­ter­ward, Price con­tin­ued to in­sult her. She was cross-ex­am­ined by at­tor­ney Pen­ne­lope Beck­les. Sec­re­tary of Bish­op Anstey Ker­ry James al­so tes­ti­fied yes­ter­day. Om Lal­la al­so ap­peared for the de­fence, while Sgt Azad Ali pros­e­cut­ed. The tri­al was ad­journed to next Fri­day.