RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Hun­dreds of stu­dents, teach­ers, and ad­min­is­tra­tors in the South East­ern Ed­u­ca­tion Dis­trict were evac­u­at­ed from their class­rooms on Tues­day fol­low­ing a bomb threat.

This was con­firmed by the Pres­i­dent of the T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion, Mar­tin Lum Kin who ex­pressed con­cerns over the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion's han­dling of the sit­u­a­tion.

In a cir­cu­lat­ed voice note on Tues­day, Lum Kin ac­cused the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion of re­strict­ing prin­ci­pals from ex­er­cis­ing dis­cre­tionary au­thor­i­ty.

He said all schools in the South­east­ern Ed­u­ca­tion dis­trict re­ceived bomb threats via MOE email ad­dress­es.

The email, which Guardian Me­dia ob­tained warned peo­ple to stay away from schools on March 5& 6 not­ing that at mid­day a de­vice will be set off."

In re­sponse, the schools alert­ed the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) and Fire Ser­vices and im­ple­ment­ed safe­ty pro­to­cols, in­clud­ing as­sem­bling oc­cu­pants at muster points.

"We know the TTPS and Fire Ser­vices can­not vis­it all schools in the SE dis­trict be­cause of the ge­o­graph­i­cal lo­ca­tions of the schools. Prin­ci­pals were in­formed that they are not al­lowed to dis­miss school and have per­sons await in­struc­tions by MOE," Lum Kin said.

He added: " The teach­ers, ad­min­is­tra­tors, and stu­dents are present­ly at the muster point un­der the hot sun and with­out shel­ter in some cas­es."

Ac­knowl­edg­ing the lo­gis­ti­cal chal­lenges faced by emer­gency ser­vices due to the ge­o­graph­i­cal dis­per­sion of schools in the South East­ern dis­trict, Lum Kin ques­tioned why prin­ci­pals were in­struct­ed not to dis­miss school and await fur­ther in­struc­tions from the MOE.

Crit­i­ciz­ing the MOE for un­der­min­ing the au­thor­i­ty of prin­ci­pals, Lum Kin said it is the di­rect re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the prin­ci­pal for the safe­ty of all oc­cu­pants on school com­pounds.

"This is an­oth­er ex­am­ple of Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion un­der­min­ing the au­thor­i­ty of our prin­ci­pals un­der Sec­tion 27 of the Ed­u­ca­tion Act," he said.

He re­it­er­at­ed: "Prin­ci­pals are di­rect­ly re­spon­si­ble for the safe­ty of all oc­cu­pants on the school com­pound and have the au­thor­i­ty to make de­ci­sions which af­fect the health and safe­ty of oc­cu­pants at the com­pound."

He un­der­scored the im­por­tance of prin­ci­pals' dis­cre­tion in de­ci­sion-mak­ing con­cern­ing health and safe­ty mat­ters, as out­lined in Sec­tion 27 of the Ed­u­ca­tion Act.

Lum Kin said TTUTA will not al­low the Min­istry to di­min­ish the au­thor­i­ty of prin­ci­pals.

"It is in­hu­mane to have oc­cu­pants of these schools stand in the hot sun and un­der those harsh con­di­tions. We call on MOE to dis­con­tin­ue this prac­tice and al­low prin­ci­pals to ex­er­cise dis­cre­tionary pow­ers and au­thor­i­ty when it comes to health and safe­ty is­sues," he added.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion Dr Nyan Gads­by Dol­ly for a com­ment, and we are await­ing her re­sponse.