PRESS RELEASE - On Saturday October 18th 2014 a fire broke out in the Learning Resource Centre at the Micoud Secondary School.
Thankfully, the fire was contained due to the quick action of two teachers and the security guard who were present at the time. The fire service was contacted and was able to clean out the debris that was left on site that same day.
School resumed as usual the following Monday, October20th 2014. About a week and a half later teachers on the compound began to complain of respiratory problems such as itchy throat, hoarseness, coughing and so on.
Complaints were made to the Ministry of Education and The St. Lucia Teachers Union which resulted in the school being on a shift system for a period of six months.
Before and during the period of the shift system, however, several meetings were held with officials from the aforementioned ministry and St. Lucia Teacher’s Union. One of those meetings was to discuss the possibility of going on a shift system.
The meeting concluded with the staff and ministry deciding that the shift would be the best alternative at the time while the investigations were being made.
The staff was reassured that the shift would most likely not go beyond six weeks and by that time they would be furnished with further information if necessary. In addition, it was agreed upon that a meeting would be called with parents explaining the rationale on for the shift.
After six weeks there was no word from the Ministry of Education. At the end of the ninth week, union representatives were called in by the staff of the Micoud Secondary School to discuss the apparent lack of concern on the part of the employer.
Early the following week, teachers were summoned to a meeting with the Chief Education Officer. They were informed that the resolution of the problem would have taken a little longer than expected and that they should continue to be patient.
An apology was also tendered for the delay of communication. At this meeting, the staff agreed to remain on the shift system until the end of the second term.
Some of the requirements that the staff had before even beginning the shift system were that an air quality test had to be conducted and that the school had to be thoroughly cleaned, among other things, all of which they were promised would have been done.
Another meeting was held with staff during the first week of the third term. At this meeting, the staff was informed that all their requirements had been met except that of the conduction of the air quality test.
They enquired as to when it would have been done and the response was that the team responsible for doing this test had requested that there be persons on the compound while this test was being carried out and that a medical doctor would have had to be on site.
They were also informed that school would have been reopening the Monday of the following week.
The staff was notified that the air quality test was indeed conducted two weeks after the Micoud Secondary School reopened. To date no formal word has been communicated to the school as to the results of this test.
Since school reopened there have been new developments in terms of student complaints by way of respiratory problems, itching, aggravated eczema, fainting spells and headaches, to name a few.
The St. Jude’s hospital has expressed concern, informally, about the number of cases of students reporting with asthmatic or respiratory problems. The staff is very disturbed about this new development, coupled with the fact that their concerns are seemly being trivialized.
They would therefore like immediate action to be taken by the parties concerned to have this matter resolved before it escalates into a crisis. The teachers and students of the Micoud Secondary school have suffered enough!!!