Staff and students of the North Ruimveldt Multilateral School were yesterday sent home as a precaution, after fears arose that a chemical used to spray the school had rendered the environment unsafe.
Stabroek News understands that on Monday afternoon the school was sprayed with a chemical to kill rats, cockroaches and other pests. A school official, who requested anonymity, said that the spraying exercise had commenced over the weekend and continued on Monday afternoon. According to the official, after the school was sprayed, a cleaner went into the classrooms and later complained of feeling unwell. When the cleaner was taken to the hospital, she was diagnosed with chemical poisoning.
The official said that as a precaution the school’s administration decided not to allow the students into the classrooms yesterday and a decision was subsequently taken by the Ministry of Education to suspend classes for the day. “Nothing happened,” the official said repeatedly, while emphasizing that it was just a “precautionary measure.”
The Ministry of Education, in a statement issued last evening, said Permanent Secretary Pulander Kandhi was informed about the situation in the morning by President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) Colin Bynoe. According to the statement, Kandai was told about the situation where the use of toxic chemicals used during a spraying exercise conducted at the school had affected classes there.
According to the release, Bynoe informed the Permanent Secretary that he (Bynoe) had asked unionized teachers at the school “to down tools” as a result of the situation. A decision was subsequently made by the Principal Education Officer (Georgetown) Marcel Hutson to suspend classes for the day at around 11: 45 am in the interest of the children, the release said.
The statement explained that “the Ministry of Education did engage a contractor to undertake a termite treatment exercise at the school which was conducted on Saturday and Sunday.” The ministry said it was informed that the school’s Head teacher, Mrs. Dianne Peters had requested that the contractor conduct internal spraying of a cupboard on Monday after school had been dismissed. The release said that it was against the Ministry of Education’s policy to conduct these exercises during normal school days.
According to the statement, Hutson, the contractor and two environmental officers from the Ministry of Health visited the school at around 2 pm and “did not detect anything to cause undue concern in terms of the air quality in the building or the surrounding environment.” It said too that the contractor’s staff cleaned the surfaces of the cupboard and the walls of the building that presumably came into contact with chemicals during the spraying exercise. At about 2:15 pm, the GTU President informed the Permanent Secretary via telephone that “everything was resolved at North Ruimveldt Multilateral,” the release said. The Ministry said it would be monitoring the situation and conducting further investigations into the matter.
The affected cleaner, the release said, was admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
Meanwhile, students told this newspaper that when they arrived at school yesterday morning they were not allowed in the classrooms but were assembled in the auditorium. According to them, they were told by one teacher that the staff had decided not to teach because of health concerns after what had happened to the cleaner.
At around 11 am, the students said that they were told to go home. The students were unable to say who gave this order. They also did not say if any students or teachers were affected yesterday by the smell of the chemical.
The students said that while no instruction was issued as to when they should return to school, they would be doing so today.
