00:00In Tobago, questions are brewing over toilet facilities at one school.
00:05Tutors, Braden Roberts, says a directive forcing boys and girls to share the same washrooms at Mason Hall Primary School
00:13highlights serious concerns over leadership at the Division of Education.
00:19What was reported to me is that the principal was instructed to have the boys and the girls use the girls' toilets
00:25because the boys' toilets were not available.
00:28Now, late yesterday evening, the Division put a release categorically denying that.
00:34So, you know, it questions the level of integrity that these people really have
00:37because the principal did not just come up with that idea to just put out a false statement
00:42that the Division is instructing her.
00:44The principal did not to protect herself because she knows the instruction is a foul one
00:49and she's not going to be taking responsibility for boys and girls mixing in the same toilet.
00:53So, I would really like the Division to step up their game, you know.
00:58Roberts tells us when he came to the media raising concerns about school readiness.
01:03The Division issued a statement claiming that people were manufacturing chaos
01:08and stressed that schools were ready.
01:11However, he says, what the Division considers ready for reopening is simply that schools function,
01:18whether they are fit for use or not.
01:20He adds that there are schools with repairs still outstanding.
01:24We have Roxbury Anglican School.
01:27They had condemned part of that school early last year
01:30and they indicated that they were going to work on that area.
01:33Now, the roof is leaking, so the ceiling is falling in.
01:38They had condemned that area to work on it last year repair program and they did not.
01:44They said they will do it this year repair program.
01:47No communication with the school as to we're not able to do it anymore,
01:51when are we going to reschedule it, nothing at all.
01:53Now, we have a growing school population
01:55and they are now cramming the children into less space.
01:59Roberts also raises concerns about the deployment of police officers in schools,
02:03saying there should have been greater stakeholder consultation.
02:07I don't know if they could be trained fully in two months
02:11because our children have said they don't fear authority, you know.
02:14They curse in front of police officers, they wrestle with police officers.
02:20So, yes, it's a concern with them having weapons,
02:23if they're going to have weapons at the school
02:24because there will be a need to use it in those high-risk schools.
02:30So, we need to have a clear understanding.
02:32Then, I don't think that there was any proper stakeholder consultation.
02:36They put forward their idea, they take people's concerns
02:39and they do their own thing anyway.
02:40Prime Minister Kamala Persad-Bissar-Savaya's statement has said
02:43no matter what some commentators say, the law remains the law
02:47and the TDPS officers are free to carry firearms inside or outside schools
02:53if deemed necessary.
02:55Nicole M. Romani, TV6 News.
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