Petersfield High still feeling effect of bad shelter management experience

Western Bureau:

Nearly a year after Hurricane Melissa battered western Jamaica, students at Petersfield High School are still attending classes just twice a week, leaving parents worried about lost learning time and prompting calls for a rethink of how schools are used as emergency shelters.

Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) President Beanchor Crigland-Crooks said the school’s prolonged disruption had left students and teachers struggling to recover, particularly those preparing for external examinations.

“Currently, we have students coming to school twice per week because we do not have adequate space, learning space to put these students,” Crooks told The Sunday Gleaner.

Although Petersfield High has always operated on a shift system, Crooks said the situation following the hurricane had further limited access to face-to-face classes for some students, with concerns mounting over the time lost from the classroom.

She said parents continued to contact her to find out when their children would return to a more regular school routine, nearly a year after the hurricane disrupted the institution.

Crooks said the experience had reinforced her view that schools should not be relied on as emergency shelters without clear plans for relocating displaced residents and restoring normal classes.

She said she did not believe Petersfield High should be used as a shelter again in the same way it was after Hurricane Melissa, given the disruption to students’ education and the challenges of returning the institution to normal operations.

While acknowledging that the Government owns the school and ultimately determines how the facility is used, she said any decision to use schools as shelters should be accompanied by a clear timeline for relocating displaced residents.

“If it would have been used, then there must be a timeline, a two-week time span deadline after hurricane for persons to really go back to where they were,” she said, suggesting that community centres should instead be considered as emergency shelters.

“If it would have been used, then there must be a timeline, a two-week time span deadline after hurricane for persons to really go back to where they were,” she said, suggesting that community centres should also be considered as alternative shelters.

Prolonged disruption

She said the prolonged disruption had also placed additional pressure on teachers, who were working to prepare students for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations while trying to make up for lost instructional time.

Crooks called for a comprehensive recovery plan that would address the time students had missed, provide psychosocial support for children and teachers, and establish clear procedures for transitioning schools out of shelter use after disasters.

“Our children must not become the forgotten victims of a disaster,” she said.

Questions were also raised about how students’ safety was managed while displaced residents were staying on the school compound, including reports of alleged inappropriate activities in areas where students were nearby.

Crooks said she could not independently confirm the allegations but maintained that the experience highlighted the need for stronger safeguards and clearer arrangements when schools are used as emergency shelters.

She said parents needed to be assured that their children could continue attending school in a safe environment, even while the institution was accommodating people displaced by a disaster.

Meanwhile Principal Roan Green said the management of the shelter involved responsibilities beyond those of the school administration. He explained that while the school maintained control over its physical space, certain aspects of shelter operations were handled by the shelter management team.

He acknowledged that the situation had exposed areas where better preparation was needed and said there were lessons to be learnt from the experience.

Green added that the school was still taking small steps towards recovery, with repairs ongoing and some areas of the compound yet to be fully restored.

He said the roof membrane had been replaced in sections of the school, helping to reduce leaks, but two blocks that had lost their roofs entirely were still awaiting replacement. Perimeter fencing was also being erected.

He said he had hoped the outstanding work would be completed by the end of November, but progress had been slow.

One of the greatest challenges

According to Green, one of the greatest challenges after the hurricane was not knowing whether students were safe, while members of staff were also dealing with damage to their own homes.

Despite those difficulties, Green said students performed strongly in their May-June CSEC and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) examinations, recording the best results since he took over as principal in 2020.

He credited the achievement to the resilience of students, the commitment of teachers, the school environment and support from external stakeholders.

Still, he said the school could not be considered fully recovered while students were unable to attend classes as normal.

“Not until I am able to have my students here full-time daily would I say that we are actually through this,” Green said.

He said the school would continue working towards restoring normal operations, while Crooks says that the priority is ensuring that students do not continue to bear the cost of the disruption long after the hurricane has passed. She said parents wanted clearer communication about repairs and a structured plan to help students recover lost learning time.

mickalia.kington@gleanerjm.com