By Admin. Updated 2:23 p.m., Tuesday, April 23, 2024, Atlantic Standard Time (GMT-4).
Hundreds of students attending the St. Vincent Girls’ High School (GHS) and the Thomas Saunders Secondary School (TSSS) received an early dismissal today (April 23) as a flea infestation problem has reportedly resurfaced.
The closure is expected to last for two days to allow officials to spray the property.
Both schools are currently being housed temporarily in structures built at the decommissioned airport tarmac at Arnos Vale, pending reconstruction of their original school buildings in Kingstown.
The problem which has occurred before is reportedly caused by stray dogs that frequent the Arnos Vale area.
One News SVG contacted senior officials at the Ministry of Education for a statement on the matter, but up to press time, no statement was given.
One News SVG then contacted the President of the SVG Teachers’ Union – Mr. Oswald Robinson for comment.
Mr. Robinson who visited the area said the SVG Teachers’ Union is concerned about the loss of instructional time and the health and safety of students and teachers at both schools.
He said this is not the first time the flea infestation has caused the schools to be temporarily closed, and the Union is calling on the Education and Health ministries to implement more proactive response measures to the issue.
“We want the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health to work collaboratively to have this problem of fleas in the schools at that location to be thoroughly looked at. We need to have a systematic programme in place where the schools can be treated with the infestation of fleas, properly sanitized, and disinfected. Doing it one or two days is not effective. You need to treat the place; close the schools for about a week and then do an assessment,” Mr. Robinson told One News SVG.
“You can’t treat with with poison for these pests and expect students to go back in that school environment within a day or two,” the SVG Teachers’ Union President added.
“So, the teachers union is asking the government to do a thorough job to clean up the compound in terms of whatever chemicals you are going to use to kill the fleas, and you have to do it on an ongoing basis. So, we look forward that the authorities would do this in the interest of the students and teachers of the Girls’ High School and the Thomas Saunders Secondary School,” Mr. Robinson told One News SVG.
In February 2022, the St. Vincent Girls High School had to take classes to the virtual setting because of the flea infestation problem observed in late January 2022.
A February 1, 2022, Searchlight Newspaper report said: “Reports are that some students were bitten by fleas last week and persons suspect that the situation may be as a result of stray dogs that live underneath the wooden structures that have been erected at Arnos Vale while repairs are being carried out on the original structures of both the Girls High School and St Vincent Grammar School in Richmond Hill”.
At the time of that report, the St. Vincent Grammar School was being temporarily housed at the location.
One News SVG 