-fire set at eight different points
The Richard Ishmael Secondary School was saved from destruction early yesterday morning after an invasion by arsonists.
- A teachers’ sitting room where an attempt was made to set one of the school’s buildings ablaze.
The attack was part of a pre-dawn campaign in which the Supreme Court Registry was also targeted for arson and two police stations came under heavy gunfire. Police yesterday said the suspects are believed to be part of the same network that destroyed the Ministry of Health a few months ago.
Students who turned up at the Woolford Avenue compound were sent home yesterday, having learnt that attempts were made at eight different locations throughout the school compound to set buildings ablaze. Stabroek News was told by employees present at the school yesterday that sometime after 3 am an alarm was sounded by a Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) security guard. The northern section of the hospital is separated from the school by Lamaha Street and the guard would’ve seen a first form classroom on fire. The classroom was one of the eight locations in the school that were set afire and it sustained the most damage. The blaze was soon brought under control by fire-fighters and hours later bottles said to contain kerosene were discovered. At the time the alarm was raised fire-fighters were at the Supreme Court, Avenue of the Republic dousing a fire there.
- The damaged first form classroom at Richard Ishmael Secondary
A teacher, who declined to be named, said she was one of the first persons to arrive at the scene yesterday. The woman said she was awakened shortly after 3am and informed that the school was on fire. When she arrived a first form classroom was ablaze and it was not evident then that other parts of the school had been lit. “When I got here the first form classroom was on fire…the fire ranks rushed from the High Court to the school and immediately contained the fire,” the woman explained. “It was about 10 minutes after the alarm was raised about the High Court fire that the hospital guard saw the fire here.”
The head-teacher’s office, a teachers’ staff room, the administration office, the Home Economics room and four class rooms were the locations where the intruders attempted to start fires. However, the teacher noted that the areas were scorched but the fires didn’t spread. “You see the places where they light didn’t have enough fuel around or the right type of material around for the fire to catch…from what I’ve seen around here they were trying to burn down every building in this compound,” the woman stated.
The padlock on the head teacher’s office was broken and a section of her curtain was burnt. Moving deeper into the compound, the first form teachers’ staff room showed signs of scorching on the desk and wall and several books were destroyed by the fire.
- The notice which greeted Richard Ishmael students yesterday morning
By late in the morning, teachers were cleaning up the various locations. The roof of the first form class room was scorched but damage was limited to books, furniture and small burns on the floor and walls at other locations. Fire officers and Criminal Investigation Department (CID) ranks had already visited the school to conduct investigations.
Teachers were shocked when it was discovered later that the first form classroom was not the only place set afire. More than half of a dozen bottles, they said, which reportedly contained kerosene were found at the locations around the school. Three bottles with a flammable liquid and channa were found in the building by the police.
Stabroek News also learnt that two security guards should have been on duty during the time the school was invaded. However, Police Commissioner Henry Greene yesterday said it was “strange” that the guard that was supposed to be on duty claimed he had asked the other guard to work but the man never showed up. “We are investigating that,” he said, “That is something worthy of our further investigation. I know they are pursuing that because it does appear that something is amiss in relation to that.”
- The hole in this front fence, blocked by furniture, might have been one of the areas the intruders gained entry to the Richard Ishmael compound yesterday.
It was opined by school employees that two security guards were not enough to secure a compound the size of Richard Ishmael’s. It is still not clear how the invaders gained entry to the school compound but teachers said they could’ve jumped the back fence or forced their way through a hole in the front fence.
Students were greeted by a notice from head teacher Chandroutie Persaud which stated that there would be no school until further notice and that the school had been damaged by fire. However, teachers said that school should resume today since registration and projects for the Caribbean l Examinations Council are currently being done. “We’re just hoping that school resumes soon because all our students showed up here this morning [yesterday] and we had to get the aid of police to clear them from the road and order them home,” another teacher said, adding “We are all shocked at what has happened and to tell you the truth we are wondering what will happen next. Maybe they will attack us in broad daylight next.”
A desk in the first form teachers’ staffroom that was set afire early yesterday morning.
Richard Ishmael Secon-dary is bordered by other educational institutions as well as the Guyana Teachers’ Union office.
How and why would someone or anyone in the right mind try to destroy the education system???
Now the blame will fall on the usual suspects…
ASK YOURSELF THIS QUESTION?
DOMESTIC TERRORISM FOR CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT
Its easy to figure out but you have to think hard about it.
Domestic terrorism you say….hmppppppp do you know anything about terrorism “SATISH”??????…..ANYTHING AT ALL????
Try blogging on the Washington Post!!!!
Don’t try your deceitful actions, double blade!!
People have done alot of thing in they stupid mind.
Arnold???…where were u all this time…what happened to yu buddy????? I thought you kicked the bucket…anyway good to see you back…but why didn’t you comment on the youth when he was TORTURED???
Sandman,
u right, only sick ppl. would do someting like this. This hi not terrorism but cowardice and stupidity, attacking a school……….
The mode of crime tells one thing.There are persons in Guyana, obviously carrying out orders, intent on destabilizing the nation.
As an ardent advocate of learning I am saddened that a school was targeted during this orgy of violence seemingly against the state. Desperate people do desperate things and I fear we have not seen the last of these types of acts. The burnings of cane fields in the 1970s have matured to schools and courts in 2009.
This sick nation and its two majority groups remind me of two scorpions sharing the same interior of a closed bottle. They’ll sting each other to death. For the good of the remaining sane citizens let’s hope the end is quick and final.
Oh yes, “desperate people” who gon come again ? Not surprisingly, the ignorant riff raff playing hero with guns on behalf of (the equally moronic) big boys who trying to create mayhem probably don’t even know how to read and write. All gon dead…
God continue to bless Guyana and the ongoing progress and development…
Reddy is hopping mad in Barbados! Holy smokes!!!
Richards Ishmael is a symbol of Indian achievement too right?
There are people out there who experience the discrimination, corruption and elitism which prevails in this country. They can only endure it so long.
All the baloney about increased tourist arrivals and development represented by huge buildings (many of which originate from shady sources)is simply rhetoric for the masses, and sand in which the big wigs bury their head.
Blacksage, this is NOT about discrimination. There is method to the madness happening – strategic thinking and planning went into all the horror that transpired over the past 48 hours. Wait for the details before jumping to conclusions!!!!!
our prosperity is eating the core of you.
That the evil channa-bombers failed to set light to the school was fantastic.
That the fire service managed to deal with multiple-fires simmultaneously was fantastic.
That the terrorist granade fail to detonate was fantistic.
God is great.
What a feeble arson attempt here and at the high court. It certainly smells fishy.
No, No, No!! Not the smell of FISH! It’s the smell of unburnt kero and soaked channa!
Don’t worry, Braff. They are just learning and will get better next time…
Oh for a flood of Biblical proportions!
Sheer madness!
This was a well planned attack on the school. Not to burn the school down but only to stir up more problems than we already have, that is caused by a failed government.
Ttoally agree with u 100%!
I WINDER Y D SCOL 2? WELL LORD LORD
This is crazy stuff. How much more ignorant can you get when you decide to burn an institution of education…???What is wrong with these people?
My old alma mater failed to be target of the dirty hands of arsonists.
Channa bombs! A total waste of good channa.
That’s chick peas here my man. Bought some the other day. Promised to make myself some channa with it.
Yeah we coulda boil it and drink lil rum!!