Despite a promise by Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly that repairs on the fence at Belmont Secondary were scheduled to begin yesterday, parents and students kept their word and protested outside the compound.
When Guardian Media arrived just after 7 am, no contractors were on site and repair works had not started.
“No fence, no class, no safety no school,” the small group of parents and teachers chanted.
“We came out here today to tell the honourable minister that we don’t want to talk, we want we fence,” PTA president Shurlanda Malcolm said.
During a visit again by the Guardian Media team after midday, there was still no sight of contractors at the site.
Questions about why work had not started were sent to the Minister but up until press time she had not responded.
Last Friday, two masked gunmen entered the school compound through the broken fence and accosted safety officer Shaka Wallace.
Malcolm, who has a child in Form Five at the school, questioned if the delay in repairs had anything to do with the type of school it is.
“Honourable minister, enough is enough, speed up the process, is it because we are not a religious-based school, is it because we are in the Belmont community, Belmont Secondary School is our prestige school, our children need to feel safe and secure when they come on the school’s compound,” she explained.
Since the incident, parents have kept their children home.
Guardian Media understands that a refusal to work was sent to OSHA but it was not upheld, so teachers reported to work yesterday.
Parent Luann Archie said the children remained traumatised following the incident and do not want to come to school.
“They are afraid, this school is in Belmont, Belmont is one of the areas classed as high risk and high crime levels, we want to make sure that when drop our children to school, that our children are safe,” Archie said.
Form Four student Ishanne Nabbie described the entire incident as scary. She said staff took them to the muster point following the incident, but they were still terrified because it’s an open space.
“We there in the sun, trying to hide from whatever could be going on, and we seeing the teachers frantically moving about not sure what is happening, and you know you calling parents and you try not to frighten your parents too much and frighten yourself, it was a lot of emotions building up,” Nabbie explained.
She said missing school in the last week had put pressure on her and her schoolmates’ study schedule, especially since this term is the shortest.
Nabbie was also thankful for her English teacher’s effort to keep them safe.
“If it wasn’t for her, Lord knows, because the gunmen were passing right on the walkway near our classroom, we might have run downstairs or something and get caught and end up in the way of these gunmen and might have died if she did not do what she did,” she said.
Minister Gadsby-Dolly said earlier this week that since Monday, measures had been put in place to assure the safety of the staff and students. She added that heightened security and police presence would be continued, even as the repair is being done.
The parents said if repairs do not start by Monday, they will continue their action. They added that other than the fence, the school has other infrastructural issues which need to be addressed and hope the minister can meet with them soon.
