A man wielding a machete yesterday morning invaded the Roxanne Burnham Gardens Nursery School, where he assaulted a teacher and terrorised students while demanding that they hand over a “laptop.”
The attack saw the man forcing his way into the school building, where he sprayed a teacher in the face with mace and ordered everyone to lie on the floor, including the children. No one was seriously injured and the man did not escape with anything but many parents later expressed concern over the attack.
Teacher Rhonda, who was still shaken and declined to give her full name out of fear of being victimised, said that she was specifically targeted by the man during the episode. About an hour after the 11:05 am incident, classes were dismissed and she was still at the school along with the head teacher Satiya Mawusi and a cleaner and they were giving statements to an official from the Ministry of Education.
Recalling the events, Rhonda said that she and the children were outside in the yard for recess when a man walked into the compound and asked for a child by name. “We said there was no child by such name,” she stated. She added that the man then went to speak to the head teacher, who then directed him to another nursery school in the area.
However, the man returned shortly after. Rhonda said she was closing the side grille door when the man returned and asked for another child by name. “Before I could finish tell he we ain’t get that child, he said he ain’t get no time for no stupidness and say gimme the laptop.”
Rhonda said that as he demanded a laptop, he pushed his way into the building. When inside, the man brandished “a coconut cutlass” and ordered everyone to lie on the floor, including the children. According to Rhonda, she told him they did not have any laptops and he said, “‘I know you get two laptops.’”
The man attacked another teacher, who said that all they had was a television set and a desktop computer, while he chased Rhonda out of the school building with the machete, she recalled. He sprayed mace in the other teacher’s eyes twice. Later, he hit her over the head with the machete, after he demanded Blackberry phones and was told that teachers at the school did not have such phones.
According to Rhonda, as she was outside, the bandit rushed out the building and jumped the back fence and escaped through an alleyway.
Rhonda said that she is sure that she will be able to identify the attacker if she sees him again. The woman added that she was still shaken by the incident, especially since she felt she was targeted by the attacker. She said it was the first time she experienced such an encounter.
Meanwhile, the Mawusi, who has been a head teacher for over 20 years, also reported that it was the first time that the school came under attack in such a manner. Some time back, she said, the guard hut in the yard was ransacked by some young men during a school session. To prevent further attack, the school gate used to be locked but because it was encumbering her work Mawusi said she stopped locking it. She said the school cannot afford a guard.
