GUARDIAN ME­DIA NEWS­ROOM

Par­ents of stu­dents of the Mt Hope Sec­ondary School wast­ed no time to­day to voice their frus­tra­tions and dis­ap­point­ment with the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry over what they said is the ab­hor­rent state of the in­sti­tu­tion.

A day that should sig­ni­fy a fresh start was in­stead marred with the same prob­lems.

It has been some time that par­ents and TTUTA have ex­pressed con­cerns over in­fra­struc­tur­al is­sues at the school. These is­sues in­clude faulty wiring, a dam­aged stair­case and wood lice.

This morn­ing, some of the par­ents staged a protest demon­stra­tion, even though the school was re-opened.

PTA pres­i­dent, Mer­rell Rod­ney, told Guardian Me­dia that they had sent count­less let­ters to the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry re­quest­ing as­sis­tance in fix­ing the school.

He lament­ed that it is the chil­dren who suf­fer the most when the State drops the ball.

“Noth­ing was done!  I my­self, and par­ents came in and did things,” he said. “Noth­ing was done… Noth­ing!”

“I am so up­set that I can­not ex­press words some­times, be­cause our chil­dren are the lead­ers of to­mor­row,” he told Guardian Me­dia. 

Re­fer­ring to the poor con­di­tions at the school and the out­stand­ing prob­lems, the PTA pres­i­dent said:

“The chil­dren worked so hard, and that is what hurts me more.  The chil­dren worked re­al­ly hard, and it is un­ac­cept­able for them to be work­ing in this.  It is to­tal­ly un­ac­cept­able!”

Mean­while, TTUTA pres­i­dent Mar­tin Lum Kin was there to sup­port the par­ents. Lum Kin said the union hopes this morn­ing's demon­stra­tion sparks some ac­tion.