Thieves break into Lusignan Primary School

Thieves break into Lusignan Primary School

Thieves broke into the Lusignan Primary School early yesterday, leaving teachers distraught that continuous promises to put proper security measures in place have not materialised.
Yesterday’s robbery during which the Head Teacher’s office was ransacked and several items stolen, followed one on Wednesday when the recently donated computer to the school was stolen.

When a marauding gang killed 11 Lusignan residents two years ago in one of the country’s worst massacres, one teacher said that President Bharrat Jagdeo had promised adequate security at the school. The service provided today leaves much to be desired, he said.

Teachers complain that the school has a guard without a baton and no weapon.
The Head Teacher of the school, Colleen McKenzie, said that when she arrived at the school she found the office ransacked and the first thing she noticed missing was an amplifier.
She went to the school after a teacher who lived nearby called to say the guard had alerted her to a possible break-in. The school has over 900 students, but yesterday classes were disrupted because of an early morning robbery.
Teacher, Ansouia Ramnarine, who lives nearby, was first alerted to the robbery. She said that the security guard called her on the phone around 4:00 hrs to say that he was hearing “noises” in the school but then the phone was disconnected.
Ramnraine said that she decided to call 911 but received no answer. She said she also called the Vigilance Police Station but there was no response there also.
She said the security guard called again at sunrise and she called the Head Teacher of the school to alert her.
After the robberies, yesterday and Wednesday, the school lost its computer, television and other items.

The Head Teacher bemoaned the fact that the Police have been lax in response to reports. Yesterday for example, she said despite calls to the Police, they did not visit the school. Instead, she said teachers had to go to the station to give details of the robbery.
Before the thieves made good their escape, they evidently enjoyed some of the biscuits and Topco juice intended for students of Grades One and Two as part of the government’s school feeding programme.
“The government warned us not to use the juice, so the thieves came and used it,” one teacher quipped.
Teachers of the school complained that when they make minor mistakes in the submission of reports, they are chastised by the Department of Education, but no representative of the department has responded to their reports about the constant robberies at the school.
The Head Teacher said that in the past, thieves would break-in and steal money belonging to the Parent Teacher Association and as a result, money is no longer kept at the school.

Saturday, April 24, 2010