GET US OUT

SHANE SUPERVILLE and MARLENE AUGUSTINE

PRESIDENT of the National Parent Teachers Association (NPTA) Raffiena Ali-Boodoosingh yesterday begged Education Minister Anthony Garcia to hold discussions with all stakeholders at Success Laventille Secondary School to have students relocated, due to an increase in criminal activities in and around the school’s compound.

On Wednesday, during a parent-teacher meeting at the school, staff, students and parents had to take cover beneath tables in their classrooms when gunshots rang out nearby. Ali-Boodoosingh said that for several years teachers, students and other staff members at the school have been affected by crime and criminal activities which take place near the school.

“Over a period of time the president of the school’s PTA has been complaining about the security of everyone on the compound. We were informed that they cannot have PTA meetings because parents are afraid to attend and sometimes after daily classes, students have to be escorted to the main road to get their transport.

“I think it will be a good idea to remove the children from the building and rebuild the school in a different location or house the students in other secondary schools. Something has to be worked out. Over the years they have been using increased police patrols and it is not helping the situation.”

SAFETY FIRST

Ali-Boodoosingh said the ministry must put safety of students first and also for teachers and staff members of the school. She said people who have to provide service at the school are also afraid to go and, if they do, they request the presence of the police.

“I know there have been several suggestions and alternatives and they have not been working. I strongly believe that by having the young people around gangs they will eventually join the gangs.

“If you are telling the students you have to be afraid of gangs, then you are telling those students, ‘If I join a gang people will be afraid of me,’ so they are carrying the wrong message to the children. Students should not be afraid of gangs and criminality in communities. The students will also lose their education time as well because when these types of activities happen at and around the school, parents will also be afraid to send their children to school.”

Ali-Boodoosingh said she is absolutely sure students who wrote SEA and were placed in the school, that their parents would be very fearful and will seek transfers. She said there are a number of secondary schools in Port of Spain and environs which can be used to accommodate students.

TTUTA: IT’S UNREALISTIC

Meanwhile, TT Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) vice president Kyrla Robinson-Thomas said while the safety of students and teachers must be dealt with urgently, it would be very unrealistic to remove an entire secondary school.

“What we need to work on is having people in the area take propriety of the school and therefore not do things that can cause the school to be disruptive and to put people’s lives at risk.

“We already have a problem with one Port of Spain primary school which has occupational health and safety issues and they have been trying for the longest while to relocate the school because teachers said parents and affiliates are also affiliates of different fractions. Any place they choose is going to be problematic for some groups to enter.

Robinson-Thomas said stakeholders and various agencies must work together, especially the with the Ministry of National Security to have police patrols increased.

When contacted, a senior police official said there have been four shootings near the school for 2018, and most of it was from stray bullets from rival gangs. Efforts to reach Minister Garcia proved futile as all calls to his cell phone went unanswered.

CONSTANT FEAR

When Newsday reporter Shane Superville visited the school yesterday, several teachers told him when they leave home in the morning, they are not sure whether they will live to see their house in the evening.

The school, they said, is on the border between the warring Beetham and Picton gangs. Gunshots are a normal, daily occurrence.

A teacher confirmed that shootings have actually increased in both frequency and proximity to the school.

He cited an incident last week when rapid gunfire on the Beetham, left two lab assistants at the school severely traumatised.

He also said the school has one of the highest teacher turnover rates in the country as many teachers are fearful of working and often leave shortly after they are assigned to Success Laventille.

“Many students will have a teacher one week and three weeks later, a new one comes in. That’s how bad it is in this school. No one wants to risk their lives to teach. We, the teachers have family too,” he said.

The teacher said that tomorrow (today) is registration for incoming Form One students who recently wrote the SEA exam. Many parents have already reached out to him privately to express their concern.

PARENTS CONCERNED

“I imagine a lot of them are concerned, especially parents who are not from the immediate area. We’ve always had some parents tell us about their security concerns and we’ve tried to reassure them that everything will be okay, but it’s getting harder to do that when we teachers are no longer sure about our own safety,” the teacher said.

“In our language lab for instance, there is a bullet hole there from 20 years ago and we have in the past found spent shells on the floor of a room on the second floor. All these things make it hard for us to do our job and remain focused.”

Other teachers said Wednesday’s shooting, which disrupted the PTA meeting which was taking place in the school’s auditorium, left several parents shaken and angry. Some promised to remove their children.”

Responding to calls for relocating the school, the teacher said he is not optimistic this is the solution and said it was not a new idea.

“It’s been proposed before by the previous administration but there are a few issues with this including logistics with how we can accommodate close to 1,000 students. Someone proposed a shift system with another school at one point, but that did not work out.”

In the meantime, teachers said they have stopped offering rides to students living in parts of the Beetham or Picton over fears for their own safety and continue to exercise extreme caution while going to and returning from work.