Student shocked to find naked man in classroom at GHS

When a student of the Girls’ High School arrived at school last week, a naked man was not what she expected to see.{{more}}

Last Friday, at approximately 6:35 a.m., a fifth form student, who is usually one of the first persons to arrive on the school compound, received a scare, after she entered her classroom and a naked man walked in behind her.

When contacted by SEARCHLIGHT, headmistress of the all-girls school, Andrea Bowman, explained what had happened.

“She was in her form when this man ran in, naked, with a shirt or something over his head and she screamed. With her scream, he ran out,” Bowman said.

It was reported that the man ran from the classroom, which is located in the top building between the Byron Block and the Business Centre, and made his escape at the rear of school compound in the McKie’s Hill area.

The student exited her classroom and ran to a security guard who had been nearby opening classrooms, and had been alerted by the scream.

Bowman stated that she, the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force and the parents of the student were immediately notified.

Kent Dennie, a teacher at the institution told SEARCHLIGHT that he arrived approximately 10 minutes after the incident happened.

Dennie, who has a daughter attending the GHS, stated that he was unnerved by what had happened.

“We don’t expect this kind of thing to be happening,” he said.

“I, myself, have a daughter here, so I was a bit shaken. I had just let my daughter out the vehicle. She had just left me and was journeying to her class”.

The headmistress also expressed her annoyance about what had transpired.

“It’s extremely upsetting because you put measures in place to try to prevent that kind of thing, but then you realize that nothing is fool- proof,” she said.

She explained that a night watchman is stationed at the school from 6 p.m. each day and is supposed to leave at 6 a.m., when the security guard arrives, so that there is no period during which the school is not guarded.

“The night man is not supposed to leave until the other security guard gets here,” Bowman said.

She, however, noted that the night watchman did not leave last Friday until the security guard arrived, so it is unclear how the naked man entered the premises.

She pointed out that when she began her tenure as headmistress in 2004, two similar incidents had occurred within the space of one week.

She said initially, no security was stationed on the compound during the day, and that she introduced them shortly after the incidents occurred in 2004.

Although, except for last Friday, no such incidents have happened since, Bowman expressed her dissatisfaction with the quality of night watchmen and stated that she has repeatedly voiced her concerns to the ministry that provides the school with them.

“I am not satisfied with the calibre of watchmen that we have on this compound. I’m not satisfied at all,” Bowman said.

“Just over the vacation there, I came down here at 7 o’ clock in the morning. The men I saw here, I couldn’t believe it…one didn’t have a shirt on; they stink of weed…they’re just not right for this compound. They leave a lot to be desired”. (BK)