Hinds: Rose Hill RC students were not in danger, video 'misleading'

EVASIVE ACTION: This screen grab from a video shared widely on social media on Tuesday, shows students of the Rose Hill RC Primary School on the floor in their classroom after being told by their teacher to duck when rapid gunfire broke out in the surrounding area outside the school on Monday.
EVASIVE ACTION: This screen grab from a video shared widely on social media on Tuesday, shows students of the Rose Hill RC Primary School on the floor in their classroom after being told by their teacher to duck when rapid gunfire broke out in the surrounding area outside the school on Monday.

AS people across this country continue to express shock and outrage over primary schoolchildren having to hide under their desks during a nearby shootout, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds has said the students were "not ever at peril of any physical danger."

On Monday, gunmen from Argyle Street, Gonzales, tried entering Richardson Lane, Laventille, which led to a ten-minute shootout. No one was hurt or killed.

Videos of students of the Rose Hill RC Primary School being told by teachers to take cover during the gunfight went viral on social media.

The school will reopen on Monday.

In a Facebook post, Hinds said the video was "quite misleading."

He said some people seemed to have thought the gunmen were on the school grounds.

"They were not! In fact, the actual shooting took place about 200m away."

He said he only became aware of the video on Wednesday.

"The school administration made it quite clear that the children were not ever, from that incident, at peril of any physical danger.

"It was the trauma and fear that gripped them all."

He said this was not the first time such an incident had happened in recent weeks.

"(It happened) so often, actually, that the board taught and their schools practise a routine of getting down whenever gunshots are heard.

"Chances are that depending on where they live, very unfortunately, they may have experienced this at home as well."

He visited the school and nearby communities and said: "The people of the community laid the facts bare and indicated the outcomes they seek.

"I called on the young men, who are used as blind and misguided gofers by the gang leaders, to think about their futures and that of the children in their one families and communities."

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