RHON­DOR DOWLAT

Teach­ers have been stay­ing away from class­es at Barataria North Sec­ondary School since an in­ci­dent on Tues­day, when sev­er­al stu­dents were al­leged­ly con­front­ed and beat­en by a par­ent, his two sons and an­oth­er per­son.

Re­ports are that the as­sailants walked past se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers and went straight in­to a Form Three class­room, where they as­sault­ed sev­er­al stu­dents. The in­ci­dent es­ca­lat­ed when oth­er stu­dents joined the fight in an at­tempt to pro­tect the stu­dents who were be­ing at­tacked. The in­ci­dent was cap­tured on video.

Teach­ers in­ter­vened in a fu­tile at­tempt to quell the fra­cas but the sit­u­a­tion es­ca­lat­ed even fur­ther and as a re­sult, sev­er­al stu­dents suf­fered in­juries.

Teach­ers stayed away from class­es yes­ter­day to high­light their con­cerns about safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty arrange­ments at the school, where most of the as­signed MTS se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers are women who are un­armed.

The T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) has al­so con­demned the in­ci­dent and breach­es of se­cu­ri­ty that threat­en the safe­ty of teach­ers, stu­dents and sup­port staff.

TTUTA pres­i­dent Mar­tin Lum Kin ex­pressed con­cern that a par­ent was able to breach se­cu­ri­ty. He wants the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to in­ves­ti­gate the in­ci­dent and en­sure se­cu­ri­ty arrange­ments are strength­ened at schools across the coun­try.

The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion is re­port­ed­ly wait­ing on a re­port on the in­ci­dent. -With re­port­ing by Carisa Lee