Preliminary investigations by the Ministry of Education and the T&T Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) have shown that claims of students stoning a female teacher, attacking other students and drinking alcohol at the Williamsville Secondary School last week may be untrue.
An official from the Ministry said yesterday that school supervisors spoke to the principal and teachers at the school and no one supported the claims made in a Newsday report last Friday. However, the official said a further investigation would be done.
The newspaper report stated that a 42-year-old teacher was alone in a classroom correcting test papers last Thursday when a group of male students came to a door and threw stones at her. The woman ran to the door and locked it and the students began to beat it with their hands and feet. The report also quoted a teacher as saying that the children were “high and drunk.”
However, the official said: “Nothing of that kind. Our preliminary investigations reveal that there seems to be no truth to the report and we are still conducting further enquiries. The school supervisors would have spoken to the principal and the staff and nobody can find any teacher who could make any claim of the same.”
During a talk show programme yesterday, Education Minister Anthony Garcia also said that when the investigation was done a report would be sent to the Chief Education Officer Harrilal Seecharan. Both are expected to meet this week to deal with the matter. Garcia said ensuring the safety of all schools was a priority of the ministry.
TTUTA president Devanand Sinanan said he was not in a position to confirm or deny the incident even after one of his officers visited the school.
“We have not been able to verify it, whether it is correct or not. Obviously no report was made to the police on the basis that they’re saying they don’t know anything about it. That means no report was made to the police,” Sinanan said.
He added: “The director of school supervision and one of our school supervisors did visit the school last week as part of the process of investigation and a report has since been forwarded to the permanent secretary for further consideration,” Sinanan said.
A senior Southern Division police officer also confirmed that there was no report matching the newspaper article. He said there was an incident of school violence two weeks ago that was dealt with, but it was minor.
Despite the mystery surrounding the incident, Sinanan said, they were partnering with the ministry to resolve the problem of indiscipline at the school so that teaching and learning could continue uninterrupted.
He said there had been several outbreaks of violence and indiscipline at the school, and while these issues not happen overnight, they needed to be rectified quickly.