‘I had to be the Iron Lady’

Former Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn delivering the keynote address at Ministry of Education, Youth and Information’s Region Five Back-to-School Awards and Gala at Ocean Coral Spring Resort in Trelawny, Wednesday night. (Photo: Horace Hines) CORAL SPRING, Trelawny — Former Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn on Wednesday night drew on one of the most difficult periods of her own career to encourage school leaders in Manchester and St Elizabeth to be resilient as they continue rebuilding schools damaged by hurricanes Beryl and Melissa. Addressing the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information Region Five Back-to-School Awards and Gala at Ocean Coral Spring Resort in Trelawny, Llewellyn likened the challenges facing Region Five’s educators to her own experience after she was required to step aside as director of public prosecutions while court proceedings challenging constitutional amendments affecting her tenure were underway. In December 2024, the Court of Appeal ruled that the 2023 constitutional amendments extending the DPP’s retirement age from 60 to 65 and allowing the office-holder to elect to remain in office were constitutional. The Opposition had challenged the amendments, arguing that they were unconstitutional because they conferred a second tenure extension on Llewellyn. The ruling overturned an earlier Constitutional Court decision that had required Llewellyn to step aside. During the intervening period, Claudette Thompson served as acting DPP before Llewellyn resumed office following the appellate court’s decision. Recalling that period, Llewellyn recounted the emotional burden that extended far beyond herself. “What the public did not see was that on the day when the decision came from the judicial review court, and my entire staff of nearly 100 were traumatised, I too was traumatised in realising that I had to step aside, having spent — call it 39 years — as a prosecutor, fearlessly,” she said. “What I had to do was, when I saw the trauma, I had to subjugate myself to the good of my staff and of the public of this country that we serve. I had to be the consoler in chief, and it wasn’t easy,” she added. With many members of her staff traumatised and in tears, she said, she felt compelled to display strength and mustered up the ability to “give a rousing motivational speech that afternoon”. “I had to be the Iron Lady. I had to be the ‘mother resilience’ because my office and my country and the people that I served depended on it,” she reflected. She told educators gathered that Member of Parliament Philip Paulwell, whom she described as “one of the persons who took me to court” was one of the first to congratulate her when the judgement came back in her favour. “The next time I saw him at a function, before I could even breathe, he came up to me and hugged me,” she added. Llewellyn said the experience reinforced an important lesson about leadership that was equally relevant to principals now overseeing schools recovering from the devastation caused by hurricanes Beryl and Melissa. “Having leadership as your gift means that you have to be resilient… When you are the leader, you don’t get a vote in terms of when is the time for you to play victim. Leadership is lonely,” she asserted. Llewellyn said effective leadership is often tested most severely when leaders themselves are facing personal challenges. PAULWELL… said to be one of the first to congratulate former Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn when the judgement came back in her favour. “It is one of the least discussed burdens of leadership. People often come to the leader for certainty at the very moment when the leader is confronting the same uncertainty. Sometimes you, as a leader, have to be consoler in chief,” she told principals, education officers and regional administrators. She praised educators across Region Five for persevering despite widespread destruction to educational institutions and personal losses suffered during the storms. “It is easy for someone standing at a distance to tell the people of Manchester, St Elizabeth, to remain hopeful. It is another thing entirely to ask it of educators who have entered damaged schools, comforted frightened children, comforted their own families, supported colleagues facing losses of their own, and tried to restore order while their communities were still coming to terms with the full extent of what has happened,” she argued. “Many of you were not only responding to a professional emergency; you were living through a personal one as well. Your schools were damaged, some of your homes were damaged, or may even have disappeared,” she added. Llewellyn urged principals not to allow limited resources or the slow pace of recovery to diminish their resolve. “You cannot give up. You cannot ever play the victim. That is what leadership is about. You cannot feel sorry for yourself,” she declared. She also encouraged school leaders to build resilient institutions by grooming others to lead rather than centralising authority. “The leader who develops others is not making herself less important. She is making the institution less fragile,” she argued. Llewellyn further reminded principals that leadership also requires recognising personal limits. “Exhausted leaders do not become more effective simply because they continue moving. Eventually, judgement suffers, patience shortens, and small matters begin to feel enormous… You have to know when to take that break,” she advised. She applauded Region Five’s educators for restoring normalcy after successive national crises. “I want to give a positive shout-out to all the educators, every one of you, who after COVID and after hurricanes Beryl and Melissa, when you, with purpose, tried to restart school, you physically went into the hills and valleys and byways to get those children back. I salute you for that. That is commitment to service above self,” she said. “Leadership within reach does not require perfection, fearlessness, or the possession of every answer before action begins. It asks for courage, sound judgement, cooperation, and a willingness to accept responsibility for the next step,” she added.