Teachers summoned

Teachers and other staff at the Grantley Adams Memorial Secondary School are on edge after they were all instructed to report to Erdiston Teachers’ Training College for a meeting tomorrow.

In a memorandum addressed to all staff, from Principal Valdez Francis, workers were informed of a “staff development exercise” hosted by the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training on Thursday, 21st February, 2019 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The memo further stressed, “All staff members including ancillary, clerical and Board of Management staff,” were expected to attend. While Ministry of Education officials were not available to comment on the agenda for the meeting, well-placed sources tell Barbados TODAY that the unexpected event surrounds a violent altercation which happened early last year, which for sometime remained unresolved.

The Grantley Adams Memorial Secondary School. Inset, Principal Valdez Francis.

“It is supposed to be a discussion regarding last year, when we were under investigation, following the stabbing incident,” the source told Barbados TODAY.

Last February, four students were injured in an incident in which three 15-year-old students were stabbed and a 12-year-old girl struck by a stone.

“From then we were told that we were under investigation but we weren’t given much details other than that. Ministry officials were in our classrooms and all of that, but we never knew what was the outcome of these investigations. So now I understand that tomorrow we will be getting the results,” said the source.

“Teachers have expressed concern about being transferred, but we really just want the children to get help, that’s really it. We really hope that is what is going to happen as opposed to teachers being blamed. That is the feeling of the staff for now.”

A 16-year-old and two 14-year-olds were charged with causing a disturbance and serious bodily harm respectively. At the time, one of them pleaded guilty and was remanded to Government Industrial School (GIS) and the other two pleaded not guilty, but were also remanded to the GIS.