Impetigo, Power Woes, and Water Issues Shut Down Several NP Schools

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NASSAU , BAHAMAS – Health concerns, power woes and even water issues led to classes being dismissed early at several schools in New Providence.

Our Joshua Williams visited several campuses, where he spoke to frustrated teachers and parents.

This is a situation that has dragged on since the first cluster of impetigo cases prompted the temporary closure of Gambier Primary and Samuel Guy Pinder All-Age School last week.

Impetigo is a highly contagious bacterial skin infection that mainly affects young children.

The infection caused schools across the country to close over the past week.

Our News was tipped off last night that members of the Bahamas Union of Teachers would not show up to teach at E.P. Roberts Primary School today.

And that’s just what happened, with about 20 teachers failing to report to class.

But six teachers who are members of the Bahamas Educators, Counsellors and Allied Workers Union did report to work, according to union president Keysha Laroda.

Keysha Laroda – President, BECAWU

“I would have advised my teachers to remain in their classrooms because their students were not impacted.”

But that quickly changed.

Laroda later contacted me to say she had instructed her teachers to leave at noon, saying there were four suspected cases.

I also spoke to Bahamas Union of Teachers President Belinda Wilson, who revealed that Sadie Curtis Primary School would also dismiss students at noon because of suspected cases.

At that school, we met up with Laroda again, along with frustrated parents.

Parent

“Somebody just called me suddenly, and I just ran and picked them up.”

Parent

“How they got them jammed up in there right now with that thing going on on the skin? They got a lot of children with that, and some of the parents don’t know. Some of the parents still send their children with that on their skin to school, and then they get them jammed up like sardines in a can in there.”

Keysha Laroda – President, BECAWU

“I would encourage the administrators: don’t keep things undercover. Say what it is. This is in your home where you want to keep it a secret. The parents need to know, your staff needs to know, because then it becomes a health and safety issue.”

But Thursday’s issues weren’t limited to health concerns.

Wilson also reported that teachers at the Willamae Pratt Centre for Girls and Simpson Penn School for Boys walked off the job because of power issues.

We put both issues to Education Minister Chester Cooper.

Chester Cooper – Minister of Education

“It’s a great annoyance and could be painful, but it’s not life-threatening, so we want to make sure that we’re not losing instructional time for the majority of our students.”

Chester Cooper – Minister of Education

“Our first intention, when there is an outage, is not to close school. Sometimes the water is connected to the power. If there is no water, that creates an unhealthy, unsafe environment. So where this exists, we take the decision to close school.”

And that’s just what happened today at Palmdale Primary and Judith P. Thompson Primary.

Meanwhile, Sadie Curtis and E.P. Roberts will remain closed until Tuesday for deep cleaning.