By Emmanuel Joseph
The fallout from the Springer Memorial Secondary School fiasco, in which several students were reportedly traumatised by a security drill featuring an all-too-real fake invasion, is expected to spill out onto the streets on Saturday morning.
Teachers and parents, spurred on by a pro-parent activist group, are expected to march in the City, according to the organiser, the Watch Out My Children group.
The development, announced Friday, came as parents shared disturbing accounts of what their children experienced when masked men with cutlasses and fake guns stormed the Government Hill, St Michael all-girls school as part of a security drill.
One of the group’s leaders, Dr Marcia Weekes, who was adamant that her team was seeking the “truth” behind the planning of the exercise that triggered panic, fainting, asthma attacks and other adverse emotional and mental responses among some students, said the march will focus on transparency and accountability in the aftermath of the simulation.
Saturday’s street event which will start in the car park opposite Kensington Oval at 10 a.m. before moving through the capital to Independence Square, comes against the backdrop of new details that emerged during Friday’s press conference.
Parents revealed the lingering impact the drill is having on students and gave hitherto untold accounts surrounding the execution of what was supposed to be a lockdown drill to test the readiness of the institution’s response in case of armed intruders.
An irate parent who struggled to recount her 12-year-old daughter’s experience said via a pre-recorded message that her child is having nightmares days after the exercise.
The mother related: “On the day in question, my daughter had a panic attack, she fainted, she is also an asthmatic and she had to be taken by fellow students from the classroom. Since the incident, she has not been sleeping, she has been screaming in her sleep – what little sleep she has gotten…reliving that traumatic experience. I really do need help for her, because this whole incident is just being minimised and I am sure it’s not only my daughter that has been affected, but a lot of other students who were also.
“She looks to her parents for protection, and I am kind of feeling helpless right now.”
The parent disclosed that her daughter has been affected psychologically to the point where she does not even want to return to school.
“Since the incident, I have not sent her back. But the reality is that I can’t keep her from that institution forever, because I would be depriving her of an education and it is against the law. So, I am pretty much at my wit’s end. What do I do? What do I do as a mother, not being able to protect your child?” she queried.
She did not indicate whether her child had undergone counselling or whether counselling services were offered to her by principal Cheryl Gill. Gill had told the media that counselling services would be provided to any child who had been traumatised by the incident.
Another parent claimed that when he arrived at the school to seek after his daughter’s well-being, he was instructed by a police officer not to stand in the area because he could be caught in the crossfire. King’s conclusion was that not even the police seemed to be aware there was a simulation involving fake guns.
He spoke of a chain of events, starting with him collecting an upset-looking daughter. The father said that as they drove, she burst into tears and requested to see a doctor.
The parent recalled that his daughter appeared to get progressively worse while in the doctor’s office to the point where her blood pressure and heart rate “went through the roof”.
The dad said: “The doctor saw her immediately because she was in distress at the time. The doctor spent about half an hour talking to her before they took any vitals…. So, after about half an hour, the doctor takes her blood pressure. Her heart rate…was very high. The doctor just said the heart rate was elevated, and the blood pressure was very high as well.”
He said his daughter is hypertensive and takes blood pressure medication daily.
“When they took the vital signs the second time, her heart rate was at 92 [beats a minute]. This is about an hour and a half after she has left the [school] compound,” he recalled, adding that the heart rate eventually dropped and blood pressure went down “to something they felt we could handle, so they sent us home”.
Since then, the girl has been having challenges with sleeping and is startled by loud noises.
“So, there are things that are triggering responses that are very unusual in her,” the father said. “She is not like that. She is usually a very, very calm person…and then she is sitting sometimes and she just breaks out in tears”
The parent also disclosed that his daughter is now on medical leave from school for a couple of weeks in the first instance before returning to the doctor for a review.
The Ministry of Education and the school principal have apologised for the “unintentional” fallout and promised to put measures in place to ensure that future drills are conducted according to the exact protocols.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
