KEVON FELMINE

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Fitzger­ald Hinds says the video of Rose Hill RC School pupils tak­ing cov­er as gun­shots rang out in the Laven­tille com­mu­ni­ty was mis­lead­ing, and the chil­dren were nev­er in dan­ger.

A two-minute video shared on so­cial me­dia showed the coun­try the ter­ror pupils felt when a ter­ri­fied teacher whis­pered: “Shh! Be qui­et” in a class­room.

Fol­low­ing the in­ci­dent on Mon­day, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion ap­proved the school clos­ing and re­lo­cat­ed staff and pupils to St Do­minic’s Chil­dren’s Home in Bel­mont.

Re­ports stat­ed that gun­fire from war­ring gangs in Laven­tille, Mor­vant and East Port-of-Spain was a fea­ture in the com­mu­ni­ty. Hinds vis­it­ed the school and walked the com­mu­ni­ty, where he said res­i­dents laid the facts and shared what they want­ed.

In a Face­book post yes­ter­day, Hind said: “You could be for­giv­en for think­ing that gun­men were ac­tu­al­ly on the com­pound. They were not. In fact, the ac­tu­al shoot­ing took place about 200m away. This video, which went vi­ral, came to my at­ten­tion on­ly yes­ter­day.”

Sev­er­al com­men­ta­tors on the post sug­gest­ed that the video high­light­ed the brazen­ness of crim­i­nals shoot­ing in broad day­light and that al­though the gun­fire was not on the com­pounds, bul­lets trav­el far dis­tances.

Hinds said Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Mc­Don­ald Ja­cob and Snr Supt Roger Alexan­der briefed him on the in­ci­dent, and the school ad­min­is­tra­tion was clear that the pupils were nev­er in any phys­i­cal dan­ger from the in­ci­dent.

He said it was the trau­ma and fear that gripped them.

“Sad­ly, this was not the first time. With­in re­cent weeks, they had this un­for­tu­nate ex­pe­ri­ence on a cou­ple of oc­ca­sions. So of­ten, ac­tu­al­ly, the Board taught, and their schools prac­tice 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.”

Hinds said DCP Christo­pher and Lt. Col Singh of the De­fence Force tend­ed to the tech­ni­cal se­cu­ri­ty is­sues and as­sured the school ad­min­is­tra­tion that State ac­tion would al­low class­es to re­sume safe­ly on Mon­day.

Hinds al­so called on the young men, who he said were used as blind and mis­guid­ed “go-fers” by the gang lead­ers, to think about their fu­tures and that of the chil­dren in their fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties.