00:00It was supposed to be another school day at San Juan North Secondary.
00:04Instead, teachers are now confronting serious questions about security and safety.
00:09According to the president of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association, Crystal Ash,
00:15an intruder breached the school's compound, entered a classroom and assaulted a teacher.
00:20We are here today at the Sauer North Secondary School.
00:24It's not a pleasant day, it's not a nice day, it's a very uncomfortable day.
00:29It's a day after someone would have entered the compound illegally.
00:35It would seem as if they breached the perimeter fence and they entered a classroom and basically assaulted a teacher.
00:42When I say assaulted, in terms of invading your personal space, items were stolen from the teacher.
00:47The teacher was asked to lie down on the ground.
00:50Of course, she was smart enough not to do that.
00:53She was able to alert other persons to the fact that there was an intruder in the compound
00:57and she was able to make her way out.
00:59For Tuta, this is not simply a case of one criminal incident.
01:03Tuta cannot go into schools and fix things.
01:05Tuta cannot go into schools and give principals instructions.
01:08We do not have that authority.
01:10What we can do is identify things that need to be addressed and we will highlight them.
01:16We will write the authorities, we will engage discussion, we will highlight them, we will talk, we will do whatever
01:21needs to be done.
01:22Ash says the question now is not only what was stolen, but what could have been lost.
01:28This situation here could have been worse.
01:30This teacher could have been injured.
01:34This teacher's life could have been lost.
01:37What a sad day would that have been in Trinidad and Tobago.
01:41And after an experience like this, where does the teacher turn for help?
01:46Tuta says the Employee Assistance Program, a support system teachers could previously rely on, is no longer available.
01:53The union says that teachers have now decided they will step in themselves if necessary,
01:59including paying for professional assistance for their colleague if the Ministry of Education does not.
02:05The EAP, Employee Assistance Program, is no longer in existence.
02:10They can no longer.
02:11So who is she to go to?
02:12You know what they made a decision there to do?
02:14They made a decision collectively that if their comrade, their teacher, their family member in terms of teaching,
02:20needs to go to EAP and the Ministry of Education will not pay for it, they will pay for it.
02:25But the concerns at San Juan North secondary goes beyond what happened inside the classroom.
02:31Tuta says it has been seeking assistance to repair the school's perimeter fence.
02:36And then there's the technical vocational block, which has been abandoned for years.
02:41Tuta says the building has electrical and sewage problems that have not been addressed by the Ministry of Education.
02:47There's a block, the technical vocational block.
02:51It has been decommissioned.
02:53It is no longer in use.
02:54It's an area that is just basically abandoned because they have electrical issues.
02:59They have a sewer issue, an electrical issue that has not been addressed by the Ministry of Education.
03:03The union says these conditions are creating an unsafe working environment for teachers and students.
03:10The teachers are basically unsafe in their work environment.
03:13And according to the OSHA, if your environment is not a safe one, you can take certain decisions.
03:19So pretty soon, you will see students exiting, you will see teachers exiting.
03:25Because this is where we are at, at this point in time, on 40th in Trinidad and Tobago,
03:28when we cannot be proactive and we have to be reactive.
03:32Tuta is calling on the Ministry of Education to address the issue at San Juan North secondary
03:36before the situation worsens and before another security breach has even more serious consequences.
03:43Charlotte Kisto, TV6 News.
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