An 18-year-old college student’s white privilege ran into a brick wall in the Cayman Islands and has landed her in prison.
Skylar Mack, of Georgia, is facing a four-month sentence after removing her electronic tracking device and leaving her residence before her mandatory 14-day quarantine was finished – so she could watch her boyfriend in a jet-ski competition.
The college student and her boyfriend, 24-year-old
Vanjae Ramgeet of the Cayman Islands, were both sentenced to four months for violating the strict COVID-19 measures. They had both pleaded guilty, but their attorney,
Jonathon Hughes, said he will argue for a less severe sentence next week.
Screenshot: Cayman News Service
In the latest example of “the man” keeping a good Caucasian woman down, the family of an 18-year-old Georgia woman has asked the Trump administration to intervene in her unusually fair jail sentence for flouting COVID-19 protocols in the Cayman Islands.
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Due in part to strict regulations (pdf) requiring all visitors to undergo testing, followed by a two-week quarantine period, the Cayman Islands has suffered only two deaths during the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. The rigid protocols and high testing rates have resulted in one of the lowest infection rates in the world, according to United Nations data.
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Busted: American college student jailed in Cayman Islands over COVID-19 quarantine violation
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Karen TownsendPosted at 12:31 pm on December 20, 2020
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An 18-year-old American college student is learning the hard way about following the laws of a foreign country. Skylar Mack pleaded guilty to violating Cayman Island’s COVID-19 quarantine law. She was put in jail on Tuesday.
Mack, a pre-med student at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, arrived in the Cayman Islands on November 27. She, like any other visitor, was supposed to undergo a two-week quarantine as mandated by the government. The government electronically tracks anyone who arrives in the British Caribbean territory. Just two days after her arrival, though, on Nov. 29, she broke quarantine. On that day her boyfriend picked her up to attend a jet-ski race. Her boyfriend, 24-year-old Vanjae Ramgeet, was to compete in the race. He is a resident of the Cayman Islands.
After their arrest, a judge ruled the couple had to provide 40 hours of community service and pay a $4,400 fine. In addition, Ramgeet was ordered to a two-month curfew that would start at 7 p.m. But the prosecution appealed, arguing the punishment was unduly lenient and would not deter other possible violators. A higher court decided in favor of prosecutors, ruling on Dec. 15 that the couple be imprisoned immediately.
The Cayman Compass newspaper reported that Judge Roger Chapple said during Tuesday s sentencing that the decision to violate safety measures was born of selfishness and arrogance, adding in its report that Mack spent seven hours out in public without a face mask or social distancing.