The Ave Maria infant and Primary School and the RC Boys Infant and Primary school may have resumed classes yesterday following bomb threats at the all-girls school and the nearby courthouse on Thursday, but that does not mean the schools are back to normalcy, evident of the former school’s Parent, Teachers Association’s (PTA) determination to hold talks with officials of the Ministry of Education yesterday about beefing up security at the school.
Members of the Association and some students yesterday morning walked to the Ministry’s offices on the Castries Waterfront seeking dialogue with Ministry officials but were not allowed into the building by police officers. They claimed several reasons for the march on the Ministry, one reason being the frequency of bomb threats at the school and the need to have a strong security unit there.
“We have grounds men but it is not sufficient. We need someone at both gates to help us. We have had lockdowns, which is when a threat comes into the school yard, for example Friday when a man and a woman entered the school yard with the man attempting to hit the woman in the school compound. When something like that happens, children are locked in their classrooms. This is something that happens a lot. We need sufficient security to help with that,” a member of the PTA said.
Members of the PTA said students were traumatized as a result of the bomb threats with President Adaiah Bernard showing the extent of that distress when he said yesterday quite a number of students actually found themselves in the emergency department of Victoria Hospital as a result of the ordeal they went through Thursday.
He said his daughter had to sleep with him and his wife because of the trauma she experienced Thursday. He, along with others from the PTA called for the relocation of the courthouse which is just over a hundred feet from the school.
He vows to do whatever he can to make the environment at the school conducive to learning. Members of the PTA say they view the courthouse being so near the school and the bomb threats as very big issues, especially the bomb threats as they cut into the instructional time of students.
The Ave Maria school has had three bomb threats within six weeks according to PTA members.