‘I had to be The Iron Lady’ - Llewellyn opens up on court challenge to tenure, urges educators to never play victim

WESTERN BUREAU:

Drawing on the bruising constitutional challenge against her tenure as Jamaica’s chief prosecutor, Paula Llewellyn on Wednesday urged educators still bouncing back from Hurricane Melissa not to succumb to adversity, noting that true leaders cannot afford to become victims of their circumstances.

Addressing the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information’s Region 5 Education Conference at the Ocean Coral Spring Hotel in Trelawny, the former director of public prosecutions (DPP) said the legal challenge, which forced her to temporarily vacate office, was among the most traumatic experiences of her 39-year prosecutorial career, but one that ultimately reinforced a lesson she believes every leader must embrace.

“You cannot ever play the victim. That is what leadership is about. You cannot feel sorry for yourself,” she said.

Reflecting on the politically charged court battle mounted by the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP), Llewellyn recalled that although she and nearly 100 members of staff in the Office of the DPP were devastated when the court told her to step aside pending the outcome of the case, she knew she had to suppress her emotions to reassure an organisation looking to her for leadership.

“I had to be the consoler-in-chief. I had to be The Iron Lady. I had to be the mother of resilience because my office, my country, and the people that I served depended on it,” she told school administrators from Manchester and St Elizabeth.

The constitutional challenge was brought by the PNP after the government increased the age of retirement for the DPP from 60 to 65 years and sought to give the then 63-year-old Llewellyn a second extension. The Opposition argued that the extension was unlawful, prompting the Constitutional Court to order her to vacate office while the matter was being determined on appeal. In December 2025, however, the Court of Appeal overturned that decision, ruling that the governor general had acted within the constitution in granting the extension, allowing Llewellyn to resume her duties. She retired from office on her 65th birthday.

Llewellyn said she placed her faith in God and in Jamaica’s judicial system and was ultimately vindicated when the Court of Appeal ruled in her favour.

She revealed that one of the first people to congratulate her after the judgment was Member of Parliament Phillip Paulwell, one of the lawyers who appeared in the constitutional challenge on behalf of the PNP.

“He WhatsApped me, ‘Congratulations. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.’ The next time I saw him, before I could even breathe, he came up and hugged me,” she recounted.

Using that experience as the foundation of her keynote address, Llewellyn urged principals, education officers and administrators across Region 5 to resist self-pity as they continue rebuilding schools and communities battered by Hurricane Melissa.

‘Leadership is lonely’

She acknowledged that many educators had suffered personal losses while simultaneously being expected to restore order in traumatised schools and communities, but argued that leadership demands strength even when the leader is struggling.

“Leadership is lonely. When you are the leader, you don’t get a vote on when it is time to play the victim,” Llewellyn said.

The former chief state prosecutor praised Region 5 educators for restoring learning despite damaged infrastructure, commending principals and teachers who ventured into remote communities to reconnect students with the education system following the hurricane.

She also cautioned leaders against allowing ego, indecision and poor communication to undermine the recovery effort, arguing that the strongest leaders build institutions capable of succeeding long after they have departed.

“The leader who develops others is not making herself less important; she is making the institution less fragile,” she said.

Llewellyn urged educators to remain optimistic despite the setbacks caused by Hurricane Melissa, drawing on Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom to argue that resilience is measured not by the absence of hardship, but by the refusal to allow adversity to have the final word.

“Great sailors are made from the roughest seas. Keep your eye on your purpose as an educator, which is to touch the lives of the children that you educate in a positive way,” she said.

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com