IT is reckless to call for the full closure of Lawrence T. Gay Primary School without allowing health officials the chance to fully address all potential causes to its environmental issues.
Minister of Education, Santia Bradshaw, made this clear while speaking to the media on Friday at the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College.
She was responding to the call by some that as environmental problems continued to plague the Spooner’s Hill school in a similar fashion as to what happened with the Louis Lynch Secondary School over a decade ago, the same solution should be taken – that of permanently closing the educational institution.
“The same approach that we have taken with the COVID-19 pandemic is the same approach I will take to Lawrence T. Gay and any other institution where there are environmental problems. I have to be led by the health professionals, whether that is environmental health or the medical side,” she insisted.
Pointing out these professionals have made recommendations after visiting the school plant, Bradshaw stated the ministry was following these in trying to treat to the problem. However, finding the exact cause of the odour, which has left teachers and students falling ill with itchy eyes, rash, nausea and vomiting, was not proving an easy task.
“It is very difficult for them to identify precisely what the problem is, so we are trying to eliminate what we believe to be the obvious problems. So we fixed the issues with the sewage system, the mold … and cleaned up around the premises. External to those issues are cars driving on the highway outside of the school as it is a highly trafficked area,” she stated.
“We are trying to fix as many things as possible before we start drawing conclusions that it is the school and it has to close. I think it is really a reckless approach to simply call for the closure of the school without a clear understanding as to the efforts being made by the health authorities and I think we can do better as a society. I think we need to approach this scientifically as best as we can and accept that there are some things we will not always have the answers to, but the fact is that we have to eliminate and that is what the Education Ministry is doing,” she assured. (JMB)