The police have taken a statement from the Enmore Primary School teacher who is accused of grabbing a student and slamming him into a window because the youngster stood observing him and one of his colleagues arguing over a blackboard.
And parents of school have been summoned to an emergency meeting set for this afternoon.
Commander of ‘C’ Division Balram Persaud confirmed that the mother of the child had reported the matter to the Enmore Police Station and he said an “occurrence was taken” but ranks requested a statement from the child but that is yet to be supplied. He said on Monday the teacher “willingly” submitted a statement to the police.
Persaud said while the matter has been reported to the station it is in the hands of the Ministry of Education.
The child’s mother Priya Hansraj had told Stabroek News that the incident happened late last month and it was as a result of not getting any satisfaction from the school that she resorted to reporting the matter to the police.
Meanwhile, relatives of the woman said that she met with the Regional Education Officer, Sandra Smith, on Monday and a statement was taken on the issue. Stabroek News attempted to make contact with Smith yesterday but she was said to be out of office.
Parents yesterday told Stabroek News that the meeting was suddenly called for this afternoon but they are glad about this as there are a number of issues they would like to bring to the attention of the school. They are hoping that officials from the ministry will be at the meeting to listen to some of their complaints.
Hansraj last Friday told Stabroek News that her son was very traumatised by the incident and she has called on the relevant authorities to investigate the matter.
According to Hansraj, who has two sons attending the school, her child was passing a classroom and overheard the two teachers arguing over the blackboard and he stopped and looked on much to the annoyance of the male teachers. One teacher then approached the child and held him by the collar of his shirt before slamming him into the window while telling him not to “piss him off.”
The woman had also said that when she approached the teacher he gave her no satisfaction but stated that should she go to the ministry and if he is sanctioned in any way then she would be picked up with a spade.
Another relative of the child had said the teacher told them that they can go to whoever they want as he is not afraid of anyone.
The boy’s mother had said that she also approached the headmistress of the school who promised to look into the matter but took no action.
Other parents had levelled allegations against the very teacher who has reportedly been abusive to children and on one occasion rode his motorcycle into a group of children.
And while the law stipulates that corporal punishment should only be administered in the presence of the head of the school, parents spoke about their children being routinely beaten.
They also complained about the general state of the primary school and some of the burning issues include the absence of teachers from classes and the deplorable condition of the school’s sanitary facilities.
They had said too that their children are sometimes forced to ask neighbours to use their toilets and some of them even relieve themselves in the school compound because the toilets are “no good.”
They called on the education officials to investigate the school since according to them sometimes as many as six teachers are absent from the school in one day.
