Union tells teachers not to panic

The country’s largest teachers’ trade union is urging its members to be “very cautious” and “extremely vigilant” as the Ministry of Health and Wellness continues a massive round of COVID-19 contact tracing that has so far resulted in the closure of an entire school.

President of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) Pedro Shepherd has, however, discouraged principals and teachers from making rash decisions independent of officials from the Ministries of Health and Education.

“At this point, we are asking our members to be very vigilant, ensure students wear masks throughout the day. We are also asking teachers in general to observe students, because we are noticing that some masks are looking a bit torn and tattered as if students are reusing, particularly the disposable masks. And so we want to be extremely vigilant. We need to ensure, of course, that they continue to wash their hands, social distance and not become complacent in this situation,” Shepherd told Barbados TODAY.

He made the comments as another student of The Ellerslie School, age 12, became the sixth person linked to the current cluster of COVID-19 cases. The news came a day after Minister of Health Jeffrey Bostic revealed that a four-month-old baby and a student of The Ellerslie School were connected to a September 24th diagnosis. Two hours later, Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw announced that the Black Rock, St Michael school would close for 14 days to undergo industrial cleaning.

Since then, the University of the West Indies’ Cave Hill Campus advised all students “who share a household, or who may have knowingly come into contact with anyone associated with the school” to stay home for one week.

In another apparent response to the news, Colin Cumberbatch, the Principal of Stephen’s Primary School, which is just a stone’s throw away, instructed students who have siblings or relatives sharing a household with Ellerslie School to stay at home.

“This is out of an abundance of caution. As we try to keep everyone safe, we believe an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure,” read the correspondence that was circulated widely on social media.

Hours later, Cumberbatch announced that his previous message had unintentionally created panic and rescinded it before welcoming “all students” to the St Stephen’s Hill institution and he apologised for any panic caused by the message.

Barbados TODAY investigations revealed that numerous students from the St Stephen’s Primary and Nursery schools are collected on evenings by Ellerslie students, raising questions among staff and parents.

When contacted, Shepherd echoed the sentiments expressed by the union’s General Secretary the day before, as well as President of the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) Mary Redman, who expressed confidence in the “scientific” process of contact tracing being conducted by the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

Acknowledging that he was aware of the message sent out by the St Stephen’s principal, Shepherd said he would not comment directly, but warned teachers against making decisions independent of education and health authorities. Instead, he advised that all concerns be reported to principals, who in turn report to the Ministry of Education through the Chief Education Officer, to curb the spread of rumours and unnecessary panic.

“I don’t think that we as teachers should go to the public or suggest to anyone that there is any chance of the spread within the schools in Barbados. I think currently it is isolated to Ellerslie Secondary and until the Ministry of Health suggests otherwise, let us assume that it is being contained within that secondary school,” he advised.

“We are assured that once there are other developments, and contact tracing proves that there is need for further investigation in any of the schools where siblings or [other relatives] might be present, that we would be updated on the situation. But at this stage we are comfortable that both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education are doing what is necessary to manage the situation at Ellerslie,” Shepherd added.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb