Unable to speak to son in emergency

THE EDITOR: I am a very concerned and displeased parent of a student that attends the Mucurapo Junior Secondary School on an incident that took place over the telephone on Tuesday March 11, 2003. I phoned the school on request to speak to my son on a personal emergency to be given the third degree by the school office personnel on duty. I find that the staff member was very disrespectful to me. The office staff was asked to kindly give information on whether or not my son could be spoken to and on the reply the staff told me that there was not much office staff on duty, that the office was busy and they had no time to go find my son.

I was told to call back in ten minutes time and was told that nothing could be done still and that they had no time to go running around the school looking for anyone. I want to know what has happened to the school’s PA system. Isn’t that to page students for emergencies and other things? I was further made to understand that the system was not functioning. So there I was calling for the fourth time crying desperately to speak to my son and once again disrespected and still didn’t get to speak to him. If it was a life and death situation what would they have done or said if something happened? I want the school to pay more attention to the situations in both the school and on their students. Parents are supposed to know that their children are safe, taught well and be able to contact their children at school if there is an emergency at home and the parent or guardian can’t make it to the school. Students aren’t allowed to have cell phones in school so what are parents to do when they can’t even be contacted through the offices at the school?

ANNAYA WILLIAMS
Port-of-Spain