P/Town PTA protests ‘mentally ill’ teacher

The St Stephen’s Anglican School, Princes Town PTA protested on Thursday morning at the school. The PTA is calling for the dismissal of a teacher whom they described as aggressive and intolerable.

First vice president of the National Parent Teachers Association (NPTA) Clarence Mendoza was at the school on Thursday. He joined the principal and staff in calling on the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) to step in and deal with the matter, which they said affects everyone at the school.

Mendoza said, “The teacher in question was suspended for two years pending an investigation for abusing a child. The teacher returned to the school in 2019 and is in a worse-off condition than before.”

Mendoza said parents are now running scared of being attacked by the teacher, who acts as though she is mentally ill.

After the protest, Mendoza told parents to give the TSC three working days to deal with the issue, after which an emergency meeting will be called at the school on February 11.

Even the teachers and principal, he said, are fearful for their own safety. Parents of students who were abused by this teacher, he said, went to the Princes Town police station and made several reports, but nothing had been done. Parents produced receipts which they got from the Princes Town police for the reports they made.

Mendoza said during the protest on Thursday, Education Minister Anthony Garcia called him to say he is aware of the situation and has passed the details to the TSC.

President of the PTA Corrinne Hunt said students are scared to go to school because the teacher in question lashes out at them.

“This teacher attacks the children hitting them with her bag while screaming obscenities at them.”The teachers are supposed to protect the children, Hunt said, but instead, students are afraid of her.

Hunt said the teacher dresses like a "streetwalker," with her leggings tied to her head.

“This teacher is a laughing stock at the school from the way she dresses and the way she speaks loudly at students and other teachers.”

Mendoza said he would also like Garcia to take a close look at the number of students who are suffering in schools. He said students in Point Fortin, Couva, Claxton Bay and Princes Town are affected.

Calls to Garcia’s phone went unanswered.