The Ministry of Education is investigating an incident where a 31-year-old Winfer Gardens Primary school teacher was on Wednesday morning physically assaulted on school grounds by the mother of a student who claimed that her child was beaten by the teacher.
The incident occurred around 8:30hrs inside a Grade One classroom. The teacher, Yolanda Jackson only started teaching at the school four and a half months now.
When the News Room visited the school Wednesday afternoon, the teacher explained that the angry mother approached her and claimed that she had beaten her child to the point of leaving marks on the child’s skin.
Jackson, however, claims that she never assaulted the child and she informed the parent of same.
“She approached me, she didn’t come to talk it out, she came to fight…I tried to walk away [but] she grabbed me from behind and she started the assault,” Jackson said.
Jackson said the mother dragged her from one room to another and continued to beat her. After the assault, the parent reportedly ran out of the compound and made a report at a Police Station.
“When I went to the station to make my report they are claiming that I assaulted her [the parent],” Jackson explained.
The teacher received stitches to the forehead as a result of the assault.
Assistant Chief Education Officer with the responsibility for primary schools, Carol Benn told the News Room that the Ministry is upset at what occurred.
“We are very upset about this and we will not encourage that attitude. No parent should go into any school and beat up on any teacher, we have zero tolerance for that and we are going to act and act swiftly,” Benn told the News Room.
Also present at the school Wednesday afternoon was General Secretary of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU), Coretta McDonald, who noted that the union is prepared to offer support and representation to the teacher.
McDonald said that the GTU is willing to offer counselling support to the parent for anger management.
“We did not take the issue very lightly in the sense that we have zero tolerance for parents coming into schools to whether assault or injure teacher or pupils.
“We are not going to sit idly by and allow parents to continue to assault our teachers and injure them; the fact is two wrongs can’t make a right,” McDonald exclaimed.
She said if a parent is upset that a teacher might have flogged his/her child, there is a process to report all incidents.
