Holy Name board launches independent review into Sister Renee Hall

The Board of Man­age­ment of Holy Name Con­vent Port of Spain has an­nounced an in­de­pen­dent re­view process fol­low­ing con­cerns and ex­pe­ri­ences pub­licly shared in re­cent days re­gard­ing al­le­ga­tions against prin­ci­pal Sis­ter Re­nee Hall.

The move comes days af­ter back­lash on­line, where for­mer and cur­rent stu­dents ac­cused Sis­ter Re­nee of emo­tion­al abuse and mis­treat­ment fol­low­ing a Moth­er’s Day pro­file cel­e­brat­ing her 25-year ca­reer at the school and her “spir­i­tu­al moth­er­hood” to­wards stu­dents.

The Board said the com­mit­tee will be chaired by Vin­cent Per­ri­era and in­cludes pro­fes­sion­als from psy­chol­o­gy, in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions, com­pli­ance, gov­er­nance, and in­sti­tu­tion­al lead­er­ship.

Lu­cent Re­search has al­so been en­gaged as an in­de­pen­dent third par­ty to sup­port the se­cure col­lec­tion and man­age­ment of in­for­ma­tion and sub­mis­sions re­ceived as part of the process.

The re­view will al­low rel­e­vant par­ties to con­fi­den­tial­ly share con­cerns, ex­pe­ri­ences, and in­for­ma­tion con­sid­ered ma­te­r­i­al to the process. The Board said de­tails re­gard­ing the con­fi­den­tial sub­mis­sion process and re­lat­ed pro­ce­dures will be com­mu­ni­cat­ed once fi­nalised.

What be­gan as an in­spi­ra­tional Moth­er’s Day fea­ture by Guardian Me­dia quick­ly es­ca­lat­ed in­to wide­spread crit­i­cism on so­cial me­dia, with hun­dreds of users, many claim­ing to be past and present stu­dents, post­ing al­le­ga­tions rang­ing from emo­tion­al dis­tress to sys­temic mis­treat­ment.

The al­le­ga­tions sparked na­tion­al dis­cus­sion and wider con­cern, with an on­line pe­ti­tion seek­ing Sis­ter Re­nee’s re­moval at­tract­ing more than 1,000 sig­na­tures.

In an up­date fol­low­ing its May 12, 2026 state­ment, the Board said an In­de­pen­dent Re­view Com­mit­tee, sep­a­rate from both the Board and the school ad­min­is­tra­tion, has now been for­mal­ly es­tab­lished.

The Board said it recog­nis­es the sig­nif­i­cance of the con­cerns and ex­pe­ri­ences be­ing shared pub­licly and ac­knowl­edged the strong emo­tions sur­round­ing the is­sue.

“The well­be­ing, dig­ni­ty, and holis­tic de­vel­op­ment of stu­dents re­main of para­mount im­por­tance,” the Board said, adding that it is com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing the process is han­dled re­spon­si­bly, fair­ly, in­de­pen­dent­ly, and with due sen­si­tiv­i­ty.

The find­ings and out­come of the process will guide any fur­ther steps con­sid­ered nec­es­sary.

Holy Name Con­vent’s board had pre­vi­ous­ly said the in­quiry would be con­duct­ed in­de­pen­dent­ly of both the Board and the lead­er­ship of the Do­mini­can Sis­ters of St Cather­ine of Siena and would ad­here to the pro­to­cols of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion and the Teach­ing Ser­vice Com­mis­sion.

“We will seek and en­cour­age truth in all of these mat­ters, and there­fore re­quest cur­rent stu­dents to file any com­plaints through the ex­ist­ing process­es. We en­cour­age oth­ers to go through the process­es yet to be out­lined in the up­com­ing in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion.”

The Board re­it­er­at­ed its com­mit­ment to trans­paren­cy, ac­count­abil­i­ty, stu­dent well­be­ing, and due process while re­main­ing guid­ed by the val­ues on which Holy Name Con­vent Port of Spain was built, in­clud­ing truth, com­pas­sion, dig­ni­ty, and ser­vice.