Holy Name Con­vent, Port-of-Spain, is break­ing its si­lence about the al­le­ga­tions against its prin­ci­pal Sis­ter Re­nee Hall, an­nounc­ing a full, in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

What orig­i­nal­ly start­ed as an in­spi­ra­tional Moth­er’s Day pro­file by Guardian Me­dia, in­tend­ed to cel­e­brate Sis­ter Re­nee’s 25-year ca­reer and her “spir­i­tu­al moth­er­hood” to­ward her stu­dents, took a turn on Sun­day night. A so­cial me­dia firestorm erupt­ed, with hun­dreds of so­cial me­dia users hav­ing neg­a­tive things to say about Sis­ter Re­nee, with some even ac­cus­ing her of trau­mat­ic abuse. Many of the posters claimed to be past and present stu­dents.

The al­le­ga­tions made, rang­ing from emo­tion­al dis­tress to sys­temic mis­treat­ment, have sparked a na­tion­al con­ver­sa­tion and wider con­cern.