Respected educator Samuel B. Moffatt passes away

Nov 27, 2017 News

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– was headmaster of East Ruimveldt Secondary during school’s heyday as top sports, tertiary institution

Respected educator and former principal of East Ruimveldt Secondary, Samuel B. Moffatt has passed away.
Relatives said that he had been ailing since March, and died last Friday. He was 90.
Fondly known as ‘Moffy’ by students, Mr. Moffatt was a disciplinarian, who transformed East Ruimveldt Secondary into a respected school with students who could compete academically with other top institutions in the country, and on the track with some of the country’s top junior athletes.
He also taught briefly at Queen’s College, St Aidan’s Anglican at Wismar, St. Theresa Anglican, North Ruimveldt Multilateral and at several private schools.
But it was at East Ruimveldt, where he spent some 13 years, that he established his reputation as an educator. He walked the corridors with cane in one hand, and arms slightly a-spread, like a sheriff walking through a lawless town.
And in some ways, East Ruimveldt was somewhat like that.
In an interview in 2010, Mr. Moffatt recalled that when he first began to walk those corridors back in 1970, boys gambled brazenly and undisturbed in washrooms, and young men with criminal intent boldly walked into the premises to snatch valuables from the teachers’ staff room.
“There were negatives, both external and internal. The police told me that most of the inmates from jail came from East Ruimveldt. Certain areas were called ‘Warlock ‘, a certain area was ‘Blood Alley’, then some students came from Albouystown, others from Charlestown (Hell’s Kitchen).
“The boys (from the area) would come and gamble when school was going on. They would play bat and ball… and the expletives and the noise. They would come and vandalise the school. They would enter the building during lunch time and throw down benches.

“When the parents gave First Form children their twenty-five cents, they (the boys) would box them up and take it away. When the teachers left their bags, especially during lunch time, they would run in the staff building and snatch their bags and run out. I said to myself: ‘what have I gotten myself into, after having passed through schools like QC, where discipline was so high?’”
“To solve these problems, I sought the help of the police department. I asked them to patrol the areas now and then and drive around the schools, and to stick around at midday.
“The police department was very helpful. I got rid of the gambling, and the stealing and vandalism. But I had internal problems. The students had no love for education…no desire for education. The schoolboys used to gamble in the toilet and on the school steps. They would come to school when they liked and how they liked. School would call at eight-thirty and there would be no teachers. As a matter of fact, the first shock I got was when school called at 8:30 hrs, and I, the new HM, arrived at 8:00 hrs, and there was nobody around.”
“Students would get up and walk out, nobody stopped them. 1969 to 1970 was a challenging year for me.
“I had to lay down the rules. Could you imagine big boys, 17, 18, not writing exams?”
“You can’t build on sinking sand. I had a meeting with the Ministry of Education. I said. ‘You sent me there; I can’t work under these conditions with the quality of teachers. I gave them a list of the teachers I wanted weeded out. I said that they were no example to the students.”
“The school had a science lab and the school was not teaching science, a technical drawing room with no technical drawing classes, needlecraft room and no needle craft.”
Mr. Moffatt began holding lessons for his fifth form students free of charge, including on Saturdays.
“At first the girls would come dressed as if they came to picnic. Some would come inside and some would not. What I did was to get an old register, and I said: ‘regard Saturday morning as a normal day of school. Come fully dressed in uniform. I am marking you present or absent. They had to bring excuses from parents as to why they were not there.”
It paid off within a year.
“They got good results in English and Literature that year. Then came 1971…it was a great leap from 1970, when they sent me a new set of staff. We worked wonders in that space of time. No teacher took any money for extra lessons. We got students who got six and seven ‘O’ Levels. A high percentage of the teachers (eventually) came from that very school. We produced students who went on to Queen’s College Sixth Form.”
During the years of Mr. Moffatt’s tenure, East Ruimveldt Secondary produced several professionals, including doctors (including Mr. Moffatt’s son), pilots, engineers and teachers. Athletics was also a big part of the school curriculum, and East Ruimveldt also produced several of the leading junior athletes of the time.
Samuel Moffatt finally called it a day at East Ruimveldt in December 1982.
“I gave my heart to that school,” he said wistfully.
“Tears came to my eyes when I was going to give my final address. The head prefect, a girl, held my hand and took me to the stage said ‘brave up’. I couldn’t let them see me crying.”

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