By Charminae George
After an incident of vandalism, classes at the Ottos Comprehensive School were delayed for at least two hours yesterday.
The deputy principal, Nigel Clarke, discovered obscene graffiti by the Physical Education (PE) room on Monday evening.
The matter was reported to the principal, Foster Roberts, who then instructed Clarke to check the rest of the school compound.
When he did so, additional vandalism to the biology and physics labs was discovered.
A thorough investigation on Tuesday revealed more damage still, including fires in the female bathroom and graffiti in the music room. Spray paints used to deface the walls were stolen from the school’s PE room.
“In the biology lab, which had most of the issue, they would’ve started the fire with some records of the teacher. One SBA book for a child was destroyed in the fire, and also the teacher’s textbooks,” Roberts said.
Vandalism to the school is a recurring problem, he explained.
The principal said security personnel are provided by the government during school hours. However, the school is unattended after 3pm, with no guards on duty at weekends, he added.
Director of Education Clare Browne confirmed Roberts’ statement regarding security personnel, adding, “During the school day, there are guards at the school. In the static, silent hours, then we have the cameras kicking in.”
The CCTV cameras referred to by Browne were a result of negotiations between the ministry and the teachers’ union. This followed a ‘sit-in’ staged by Ottos Comprehensive School teachers in March. Security concerns were at the centre of the matter.
“One of the things that we discussed with the [teachers’] union would have been installing in high-risk schools, security cameras. Ottos Comprehensive has the security cameras installed,” Browne told Observer.
“I just find it despicable that people would just want to interrupt other people’s education like that,” he added.
Concerns over school security have been at an all-time high across Antigua in recent months and were among issues that led to last month’s industrial action by teachers, which saw government schools remain closed for an extra week and a half after the Easter break.
