Teachers and pupils of the Rose Hill RC Primary School in Laventille returned to classes yesterday for the first time since the school was temporarily shut down following a shooting incident between warring gangs last week.
However, the atmosphere was a lot more calm as members of the TTPS and Defence Force were on hand to ensure there was no disruption of the kind that forced children to duck for cover under their desks last week.
After being monitored outside and ushered onto the compound in some cases by the law enforcement officers, the children had a meeting with school principal Charlene Quamina before they returned to their respective classes. They also had a prayer session and assembly.
Also present at the school for yesterday’s reopening were Catholic Education Board of Management (CEBM) CEO Sharon Mangroo, Port-of-Spain South MP Keith Scotland and officers from the Inter-Agency Task Force’s Hearts and Minds programme.
“I said that Wednesday couldn’t come soon enough for me, because I wanted school to resume,” Scotland told the media outside.
“This is an important school for the children in this area. We want the school to continue its operations and get back to a state of normalcy, as far as it can, as long as it can.”
Scotland later addressed the children inside, telling them, “We’re not going to duck down, we’re going to rise.”
He added, “We will never stay on the ground.”
He said the staff was receptive and the children understood the message.
Despite the presence of uniformed police and soldiers, parent Carla Mondery said she felt shootings like last week could occur again. She said while it’s quiet now, after two or three days, shootings start again.
“Them fellas eh care it have a school here. What I feel is they should transfer the children to another school (building),” she said.
On the day the incident happened, she said her child was afraid to leave the school and walk home. She said her children were also afraid to return to school.
She wasn’t the only parent concerned about how long the peace would be kept. Some parents also wondered how long the police/army would maintain their presence.
Staff and pupils were at home since October 31 following a shooting incident. A two-minute video of the reaction by staff and pupils during the gunfire was posted to social media and drew condemnation and calls for the security services to do more.
