BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - PRIME MINISTER the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas has shed some light on the contamination issue at the Basseterre High School, stating that a report submitted by Dr. Milton Whittaker was not turned away by his government but by the people who were concerned about the issue.
In March of this year, Dr. Whittaker did an analysis of the school's laboratory and compiled a report, which was presented to the Ministry of Education, describing the problem at the school and measures that should be address immediately.
Dr. Doulgas, while responding to a caller on his weekly radio call-in programme 'Ask the PM', said that the report, when presented to those in authority at BHS and those concerned, was rejected by them and not his government as believed by many.
"My understanding and my information that Dr Whittaker did provide a report and my understanding is that the report which was proffered by the Ministry of Education to the school authorities, the teachers, I understand that the report was rejected.
"The report was known. There were certain things that were said in the report which did not necessarily indicate that there was any kind of contamination. Of course, we know that there might have been the need for proper disposal of chemicals," the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister went on the state that if persons were falling ill due to the contamination, the government would have to intervene and that that is the reason for the experts coming in from Trinidad to assess the situation.
"But if people are falling ill, naturally the government has to respond to that and that is why we brought in Dr. Whittaker. Dr Whittaker's report was rejected, not by the government but by those who were concerned, and so the government has gone further afield. And today, coming into the country is a team of qualified persons who would look at the situation, and whatever is the report we would hope that the government, those concerned, would accept the report and carry out the necessary action plan that the report will speak to."
Dr. Douglas further stated that there are persons who are trying to make the BHS issue a political one, noting that they are calling on the teachers to march tomorrow (Nov. 22) with them and that that is only because persons are not going to march willingly.
"But the government is going to continue to act in a responsible way. At the end of the day I want to say to all concerned that is the students whose welfare is being interrupted. And the government is going to act in a responsible way to make sure that we pursue to report that we believe is going to be a credible report from a credible team coming out of Trinidad since we rejected our own. Let us now look outside for others to come in and hopefully we would be able to work out this thing together without any unnecessary ranker," he added.
PM Douglas ended his response to the caller by advising teachers and students to consider their health above everything else.
He assured that his government would do everything in its power to ensure this matter is put to rest as quickly as possible, "so our students learning and our students education will continue and the health and the welfare of all concerned will be looked after".
