RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Teach­ers at Bel­mont Sec­ondary School are in­sti­tut­ing an of­fi­cial re­fusal to work fol­low­ing last Fri­day's in­ci­dent where a gun­man as­sault­ed a safe­ty of­fi­cer at the school.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia at the start of May Day cel­e­bra­tions in San Fer­nan­do on Mon­day, the pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA), Mar­tin Lum Kin, called on the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to spare no ex­pens­es in mak­ing the school safe.

"Right now, we have an in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions con­sul­tant of­fi­cer at the school, ad­vis­ing and guid­ing teach­ers in sub­mit­ting a re­fusal to work," Lum Kin re­vealed.

He added: "We be­lieve they have a good ar­gu­ment to in­sti­tute the re­fusal to work. They have been work­ing un­der these con­di­tions for sev­er­al years—the breach in the perime­ter fence; the re­moval of safe­ty of­fi­cers from the school."

Lum Kin slammed the Min­istry for re­mov­ing safe­ty of­fi­cers from the school.

"There are sup­posed to be two safe­ty of­fi­cers, yet the Min­is­ter saw it fit to re­move one and place them in an­oth­er school. When we vis­it­ed on Fri­day, there were three out of the com­ple­ment of four se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers at the gate," he re­vealed.

Lum Kin added: "We are say­ing that is not enough. The teach­ers have had enough. TTUTA has had enough. It is time that the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion en­sures the safe­ty of all staff and stu­dents."

Say­ing there should be no fur­ther dis­rup­tion of school, Lum Kin asked:

"Is it that some­one needs to be in­jured or killed be­fore some­thing is done?"

Lum Kin said he un­der­stood the fi­nan­cial con­straints faced by the Min­istry.

"How­ev­er, we are say­ing this is se­ri­ous enough. It needs to be ad­dressed and they can find the mon­ey for it," Lum Kin ar­gued.

Last Fri­day, while over 55 schools were shut down be­cause of an emailed bomb threat, a school safe­ty of­fi­cer was as­sault­ed by gun­men who had breached the bro­ken perime­ter fence.

Mem­bers of the school’s Par­ent Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion (PTA) staged a protest this morn­ing, to high­light their con­cerns over se­cu­ri­ty and safe­ty at the school.

Guardian Me­dia will bring you more as this sto­ry un­folds.