School security review after attack on head |20 October 2010

Principal secretary for education Merida Delcy made this statement yesterday after the headteacher of Cascade primary school was attacked on Monday afternoon.

Inese Oredy was attacked by two individuals after reprimanding one of her students for misbehaving.
“I heard some noise outside my office when all the other children were being quiet in class – so I went to see what was going on,” she said.

Miss Oredy found a group of students running into bushes next to the office. She decided not to chase them but to wait for them to get back to class to discipline them.

“One of the boys was not happy about his punishment and decided to leave the school compound, and I saw him make a call on his mobile phone,” she said.

Within 10 minutes of the boy making the call, two people came to the school compound looking for Miss Oredy.

She said what happened after that was chaotic – with teachers defending her so she would not get hit and the intruders hitting children in their attempt to get at her.

“However, some of the teachers talked to them, calmed them down and I was able to get away from there,” she added.
Mrs Delcy said the ministry strongly condemns such acts as they show a lack of respect for the school’s premises and staff.

“This comes at a time when we are trying to promote a good working relationship between the schools and the communities,” she said.

“We will not be able to do our work well if we do not have a good partnership with the communities – this includes parents and the district’s inhabitants.”

The Education Act 2004 stipulates that the minute someone enters a school’s premises to attack teachers, students or staff, it puts them at fault with the law.

A similar incident happened at Plaisance School recently, and those responsible were dealt with according to the law – some were given prison sentences.

Mrs Delcy said the ministry has reported the Cascade incident to the authorities, who will take the necessary action.

At the moment some schools have wardens, as well as security cameras monitoring the grounds.
Mrs Delcy said the ministry is now conducting an assessment to see if security measures are effective and to determine which areas need improvement.

“We have now strengthened security in schools as a result of the attacks, and we are also reviewing what we have in place at the moment,” she said.

Mrs Delcy also said since people have lost all respect for school property, the ministry thinks it is time to review the methods it uses to secure the premises.

This will put the minds of parents as well as teachers at ease, she added.

Meanwhile Mrs Delcy said there are procedures in schools that parents need to follow if they have grievances they want to discuss with the school’s management.

“They should do so in a very calm manner and talk to the headteacher in a bid to solve the problems,” she said.

She also appealed to parents to be serious about their children’s education and take full responsibility by preventing intruders going into schools and attacking people.