Parents want resolution to long-standing issues at Lawrence T Gay Memorial School – Barbados Today

November 12, 2022 Kim Martel

Parents of pupils of Lawrence T Gay Memorial School on Saturday called for a resolution to the environmental and health issues plaguing the campus.

A meeting on Saturday, organised by the schools PTA, sought to give frustrated parents a platform to air their grievances on the situation at the school, with some issues dating back to 2016, including pungent smell that left students and staff with headaches, burning of the skin and other ailments.

One concerned parent, Aisha Olton, said that her daughter has sensitive skin and often takes extra precaution to protect herself, however, for some time now the environmental problem at the school has seemingly caused her daughter to develop significant bumps and sores on the lower parts of her legs.

“On Thursday afternoon when she came home … the back of her feet was filled with bumps,” Olton said.

II took her to the pharmacist [and he] said it’s not mosquito bites. I took her to the dermatologist yesterday, he could not say exactly what it [was]. He gave me three options, two of which were for mosquitoes and sandflies, but he did say mosquitoes and sandflies attack skin that they can see, whereas mites don’t, mites tend to crawl. However she has no bites on her hands or face … the only place these marks are, are to the back of her feet.”

Olton said: “I’m not upset with the teachers not wanting to be on the plant, not that they are not teaching our kids because they are at other locations teaching our children … I am just asking for someone to take us the parents at Lawrence T. Gay, the teachers at Lawrence T. Gay seriously. Get us a second opinion, that is all we are asking.”

Retired teacher, Jocelyn Gibson, also reiterated that the problems at the site are not new, but had been occurring for a number of years, as chemical smells and skin irritation had become commonplace among staff and the student population.

“During that time I would have experienced lots of stinging skin, I don’t say itchy, it’s stinging. I would always wear very long sleeves, sleeves to my wrist, and I would always get lots of stings throughout the daytime, then there were offensive odours, then sometimes it left not just me, but the children feeling nauseated.”

PTA president Steffanie Williams told Barbados TODAY that the aim for the group was not to attack the Government in any way, however, she said a definite answer or plan of action from authorities was still absent from all of the recent talks.

She said that the level of disruptions to classes over the years had greatly affected the level of education being provided to students, and with the chaos caused by COVID-19 to education on a whole, Lawrence T. Gay Memorial School students deserved to know what is the definite way forward.

“We are not here to disrespect the Government, we are not here to disrespect the ministry, we are not here to disrespect anyone, we just need to have conclusive answers, we just need to know what is going on.

“We have given them [Government] time, and added to time we have been patient, time and time again. What is it we have to do now … give blood? We need to have this situation resolved, our children are suffering.”

She added: “Our concerns are real, and the wider public may not understand why we are doing what we are doing, but because we are the parents and we are the persons who have the students going to school here at Lawrence T. Gay, we believe that we need to step up.

“If we do not step up and stand up for our children, then who will. We need to do it.” (SB)

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