An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Class­es at the Gloster Lodge Mora­vian Pri­ma­ry School in Bel­mont re­sumed yes­ter­day, amidst con­cerns, fear and ap­pre­hen­sion by anx­ious par­ents/guardians and teach­ers who re­newed the call for a vis­i­ble po­lice pres­ence dur­ing school hours so they could once again feel safe.

The in­sti­tu­tion re­mained closed for three days last week, fol­low­ing the mur­der of Amoa Howe, me­tres from the school’s front gate on Feb­ru­ary 20.

While par­ents/guardians were urged to send their chil­dren back to school yes­ter­day, there was a marked dif­fer­ence in the num­bers.

It was es­ti­mat­ed that by 8.20 am, on­ly half of the school’s 239-pupil pop­u­la­tion had turned up; while the staff turnout was a lit­tle more than half.

The first pupil was dropped off around 6.30 am, while pupils con­tin­ued to ar­rive well af­ter the 8.30 am start time.

The guid­ance coun­sel­lor was heard cau­tion­ing pupils against con­gre­gat­ing in the school’s front yard, which faces Gloster Lodge Road. In­stead, she told pupils to play at the back of the school.

While there was not a sta­tion­ary po­lice pa­trol near­by, at least two marked po­lice ve­hi­cles were seen dri­ving past the school be­tween 7.30 and 8.20 am, much to the dis­may of T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) staff rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mar­isha John.

John said de­spite the cir­cum­stances that led to the school’s clo­sure last week, they re­mained ne­glect­ed.

Re­gard­ing the prin­ci­pal’s re­quest for the pupils writ­ing next month’s Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment (SEA) ex­am to be re­lo­cat­ed to an­oth­er school in a safer neigh­bour­hood, John said this too had to be care­ful­ly con­sid­ered.

“There are pros and cons to each,” John said.

All the pupils and staff were ac­com­mo­dat­ed on the sec­ond floor for their rou­tine dai­ly af­fir­ma­tions of prayer and pos­i­tiv­i­ty. The pupils sang melo­di­ous­ly as they belt­ed out the lyrics to If You’re Hap­py and You Know It. Shout­ing ‘amen’ at the top of their lungs when en­cour­aged by the teach­ers, those present seemed to be hap­py just be­ing back with their friends at school.

Min­is­ter of Chris­t­ian Ed­u­ca­tion at the Trinidad Con­fer­ence of the Mora­vian Church, Pas­tor Mar­lene Brown, al­so prayed with the pupils and staff.

Speak­ing ahead of en­ter­ing the school around 8.30 am, she said, “I am here to do reg­u­lar de­vo­tions with the chil­dren, and to al­so sup­port them at this time...the school, the par­ents, and of course, the com­mu­ni­ty in a pos­i­tive way.”

Par­ents: We have no choice

A moth­er whose son is writ­ing the SEA ex­am on March 21 said while she re­mained in­de­ci­sive about send­ing him back to school due to her safe­ty con­cerns, there was lit­tle choice left as he has the ex­am com­ing up.

An­oth­er anx­ious moth­er watched her son, who is in Stan­dard Four, walk to school as she stood at the bot­tom of the street.

She said, “We just have to pray to Fa­ther God.”

Dash­ing off as he left his son at the front gate, one fa­ther said, “They should have armed se­cu­ri­ty by all schools and not just some.”

He crit­i­cised the po­lice as he added, “Let’s face it...crime is up.”

Re­fus­ing to dis­close his name, he called for ac­tion.

“If the chil­dren are the fu­ture, then show them it,” he shout­ed be­fore rush­ing off.

How­ev­er, an­oth­er fa­ther ex­pressed con­fi­dence the school and com­mu­ni­ty would make it through.

“I not feel­ing safe, but I know she safe by the grace of God. Every­thing will be all right.”

Fol­low­ing a stake­hold­er meet­ing at the school last Wednes­day, sev­er­al rec­om­men­da­tions were of­fered on how to im­prove the school’s se­cu­ri­ty. Among them was the in­stal­la­tion of a guard booth; the rais­ing of the school’s perime­ter walls; up­grad­ing of the school gate from wrought iron to steel; a po­lice pres­ence with­in sight of the school from 7 am to 4 pm dai­ly; and a pro­pos­al to have Gloster Lodge Road be made a one-way thor­ough­fare dur­ing school hours.

The school’s Par­ent Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion (PTA) pres­i­dent Verdel Hare­wood said it was un­der­stand­able why some par­ents were hes­i­tant to send their chil­dren back to the school.

She lament­ed, “It seems like noth­ing took place. We came in this morn­ing and the en­vi­ron­ment seems the same, no po­lice pres­ence. And it leads me to think that we are re­al­ly ne­glect­ed be­cause I am look­ing at the lit­tle ones play­ing in the back and it hurts my heart.

“We know they are trau­ma­tised but we know they want to learn, and we have been cry­ing out for things to change but noth­ing seems to be chang­ing.”