Hindu school in Trinidad closed because of upsurge in crime

(Trinidad Guardian) The Ari­ma Hin­du School on Tem­ple Street, has been or­dered closed fol­low­ing an up­surge of crime in the com­mu­ni­ty where it is lo­cat­ed

On Fri­day, Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion of­fi­cials told the prin­ci­pal and staff no one should en­ter the school com­pound un­til fur­ther no­tice.

A meet­ing with all stake­hold­ers will take place at the Ari­ma Town Hall on Sorzano Street at 5 pm to­day.

Par­ents had ex­pressed con­cern fol­low­ing the mur­der of a res­i­dent out­side the school last week Thurs­day.

Do­minic Houl­li­er Almerales, 37, was killed and Deis­ree Sparkle Layne, 39, was in­jured when they went to col­lect rent at a two-storey apart­ment com­plex on Tem­ple Street.

Po­lice said Almerales slapped one of the men, who then shot him mul­ti­ple times. Layne was al­so hit, sus­tain­ing gun­shot wounds to her shoul­der and leg.

Min­istry of­fi­cials and po­lice sub­se­quent­ly or­dered a lock­down of the school with stu­dents and staff in­side the build­ing. Since then, par­ents have not been send­ing their chil­dren to school out of fear for their safe­ty.

The burn­ing of a car and fire­bomb­ing of apart­ment and a house near the school in the days af­ter the mur­der have fur­ther com­pound­ed the fear of teach­ers, stu­dents and par­ents. As a re­sult, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion has sus­pend­ed class­es un­til fur­ther no­tice.

Sources said the pos­si­ble re­lo­ca­tion of the school to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go (UTT) Cam­pus in Ari­ma is be­ing con­sid­ered.

Ari­ma May­or Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian said she was in con­tact with Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter An­tho­ny Gar­cia, who is al­so the MP for Ari­ma, about the best so­lu­tion in the in­ter­est of the 200 stu­dents of the school.