The Bermuda Union of Teachers has warned that intervention by Crystal Caesar, the education minister, in a disciplinary matter has had a broad impact in the classroom.

Teachers at Port Royal Primary reportedly prohibited a male student from participating in an interschool sporting event, but Ms Caesar was said to have intervened to ensure the student could take part.

The Ministry of Education insisted that the minister did not act outside of her authority, noting that under the Education Act 1996 the minister's responsibility included reviewing matters when concerns are raised about school discipline.

However, in an opinion piece in today’s edition of The Royal Gazette, the BUT said that the decision to overrule the teachers has a real consequence for teachers, students and parents.

The statement said: “The deeper problem is that this is no longer a single incident. Port Royal is now a case study in what happens when disciplinary authority becomes vulnerable to political intervention.

“Across the system, teachers and principals have lost confidence that consequences will stand. The Code of Conduct remains unchanged on paper, but every educator in Bermuda has now watched a school-level disciplinary decision reversed under ministerial pressure while a teacher involved was placed on leave.

“Educators are responding rationally. They are stepping back, writing fewer referrals and absorbing behaviour that should not be absorbed because the cost of acting now appears greater than the cost of inaction.

“Children notice this immediately. When one student’s consequence can be reversed by a phone call, every child in that building learns the same lesson: rules are negotiable if the right adult intervenes.”

The statement said that while complaints should first be directed to principals, parents are increasingly bypassing schools and going directly to the Department of Education because they know they can have school-level decisions overturned.

However, the union said not all parents are treated the same way.

The statement said: “One family reportedly received ministerial intervention within hours. A larger group of parents from the same school, concerned about the fallout of that intervention, have reportedly been redirected back to the principal.

“The ministry’s own 2018 Ministerial Code warns ministers to avoid not only actual conflicts, but the appearance of conflicts. The public are therefore entitled to ask a straightforward question: why are some parents heard directly, while others are redirected back down the chain?

“Public education depends on equal treatment. The moment one parent can access ministerial intervention while another cannot, the system begins to resemble a network of influence rather than a public service.”

The union warned that there was a “broader behavioural crisis” unfolding across the school system and allowing disruptive students to avoid consequence hinders other students.

The statement said: “The Code of Conduct already provides for graduated consequences so problems can be addressed before they escalate. When those consequences are routinely undermined, the only remaining tool teachers have is endurance.

“Meanwhile, many alternative-education pathways for high-needs students remain inaccessible or blocked by bureaucracy. Requests for support are delayed, while meaningful alternatives remain limited.

“The consequences are increasingly visible, even in Bermuda’s preschools. Teachers and principals report children as young as three hitting staff, hitting one another and verbally abusing adults.”

The union said that teachers find themselves exposed, risking administrative leave if they attempt to intervene in a fight or enforce the Code of Conduct.

“The result is exactly what many educators warned would happen: burnout, attrition, and a workforce learning in real time that the safest professional option is often not to intervene at all,” the statement continued.

“Meanwhile, some of our youngest, best and brightest educators opt to seek roles in private schools where, when behaviour concerns arise, the student causing the concern, and their family, is asked to not return.”

The union added that many decision-makers who shaped the school system in its present form are now departing it with senior leaders, principles and deputies retiring or resigning.

“That matters because accountability often leaves with the people who made the decisions,” the statement continued.

“Meanwhile, those remaining inherit a system with reduced institutional memory and fewer supports. Recent budget reductions cut paraprofessional funding, autism-unit funding and staffing levels while reducing the budget of the renamed Education Reform Unit.”