The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Staff Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

TEACHERS at Stephen Dillet Primary School staged a sit-out yesterday as union officials pledged to continue to agitate for a resolution with the Minister of Education over several outstanding issues.

Bahamas Union of Teachers president Belinda Wilson said public school teachers across the country have been put on “amber alert” after she was denied access to Anatol Rodgers High School for a lunch time meeting with union
members on Wednesday.

The union has filed a trade dispute over the matter, according to Ms Wilson, who said yesterday’s sit-out at Stephen Dillet was in response to the shortage of teachers at the primary school.
Yesterday, Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald dismissed claims that the decision to bar Ms Wilson and executive members’ entry to the school was in violation of their collective bargaining agreement. He added that
the union was allowed to hold their meeting after school.
Mr Fitzgerald said: “[Ms Wilson] was implying that she has a right to enter the campus during the school day, but that’s not true. There is nothing in the union agreement that gives her or any member the right to enter any
campus anywhere in the Bahamas without permission from the principal. If the principal refuses to allow her, she has an appeal to the director, but she needs to indicate what it is that she’s going onto the campus for.”
He added: “There is no way in the first week of school, [Ms Wilson] can expect to go onto campus to cause a disturbance at a school like Anatol Rodgers and expect the principal to allow her to go onto campus. I
supported the principal’s view of that and if [Ms Wilson] wanted to meet she could wait until after the kids were dismissed from school to have the meeting – which is what happened.”
Anatol Rodgers High school teachers were outraged by the way police and security officers handled the union’s executive management, according to Ms
Wilson, who said the education minister was “talking utter rubbish.”
She pointed to the recent union elections in June, adding that in the previous term candidates used break and lunch times to hold meetings and campaign in the various schools.
Ms Wilson said: “The minister is being disingenuous because the principal informed me that it was the minster who instructed her that the union not be allowed on campus. Now that they know it’s a trade dispute they are
switching up their tongues.”
 “The meeting,” she said, “was not for any disturbance, the meeting was to meet with members as we usually do, especially during the first part of the school year, to make sure all is well and to check on concerns to see how
best we can provide services to our members. Our members requested a meeting this week.”
The latest move comes after a union threat to pull teachers and shut down two schools if the principals are not removed.
According to Mr Fitzgerald, Anatol Rodgers High school is the largest in the country with one of the best records for academic performance.
Yesterday, Mr Fitzgerald said: “This issue has been ongoing for some time with the president of the union and the principal of Anatol Rodgers, for the most part I thought we had resolved it.
 “So I was quite surprised and taken aback that they
were going to plan a sit-out if the ministry didn’t move two principals,” Mr Fitzgerald said — one in Grand Bahama and one in New Providence. I looked into the matter and
I was satisfied that the issues with the principals were more personality than performance-based and as a result we could work those out. The principals had the support of the school board, and in one instance the PTA, so I didn’t see it as a major issue.”
Earlier this week, Ms Wilson said a shop steward at Anatol Rodgers was escorted to a meeting with the principal by four police officers and two security guards. After the meeting, Ms Wilson continued, the shop steward
was escorted off the campus.
She added: “It’s victimization, it’s intimidation, the union is not afraid and it’s not going to sit down and let our members be treated in this way.
 “It is amazing yesterday they could find 18 police officers
to prevent me from entering the school, and at the same time there were murders committed on our streets. We have police officers to prevent the union from doing its job, but not to prevent crime. Is this the way we’re
using our police resources?” she asked.