Guardian ( Trinidad and Tobago )
15 October 2023 ( Page 12 )
TTUTA wants TTPS to speed up bomb threat investigations at schools
By Akash Samaroo
In just under six weeks since the resumption of
the 2023-2024 academic year, Presentation
College, Chaguanas, has been on the receiving
end of nine bomb threats via email. The latest
was received last Thursday.
With this frequency and the fact that Naparima
College and the Naparima Girls’ High School
recently received similar threats, the Trinidad
and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association
(TTUTA) believes “high-performing schools” are
being targeted.
The union felt that the Trinidad and Tobago
Police Service (TTPS) should have made arrests by
now.
“TTUTA is worried about the length of time that
they are actually taking to find out what is
happening with these different bomb threats
because it seems to be more than likely coming
from the same source based on the message
dispersed”, said Adesh Dwarika, the union’s first
vice president.
Dwarika said these emailed threats were coming
from someone or people calling for a “new world
order” and the wording of these threats fuelled
their suspicion that so called “prestigious”
schools were being targeted.
“The association is quite familiar with the
Presentation College, Chaguanas, situation and
we were wondering if specific schools are being
targeted because the message is coming from an
anonymous email address and it has to do with a
dark message that I cannot remember offhand
but it has to do with a new world order and it says
‘we are coming to get you’, so we are quite
concerned,” Dwarika added.
He said that given nine threats had been sent to
Presentation College, Chaguanas, it was
bewildering how the TTPS was not able to trace
its source.
“With Presentation it is becoming a norm now
and we are very concerned with the disruption of
the learning because when that happens the
normal safety protocol must be followed and that
takes a couple of hours depending on the
different agencies and their response time and
that is taking away from learning,” Dwarika
added.
Parent Teachers Advisory Board: It’s frustrating
That sentiment is being echoed by Presentation
College’s Parent Teachers Advisory Board (PTAB).
Its president Ravi Johnson said the bomb threats
have been frustrating parents and students alike.
“We do have students currently preparing for
midterm exams, some are also working on their
SBAs for CSEC and CAPE exams which are right
around the corner, so when teaching is disrupted,
it sets them back tremendously,” said Johnson.
He added that some parents also might not have
the flexibility around their work schedules to
accommodate an early pick-up of their children.
Guardian Media understands the threats are
emailed at various times, sometimes the night
before, other times the day of or during classes.
But Johnson said the TTPS has promised to keep
them abreast with any developments.
“I know some parents may express some
frustration with the speed the investigation has
been taking but I can tell you that earlier this
week the relevant authorities within the TTPS
met with the PTAB and they did give the
assurance they will do everything in their power
to address the situation and what they have
promised to do is to update the school and the
relevant stakeholders as soon as they receive
updates,” Johnson explained.
He said psychological support has also been
offered by the TTPS to parents and students at
the school and they are considering it.
Meanwhile, Johnson had a message for those
responsible for the threats.
We just want to kindly appeal to that person to
cease and desist from sending these threats if
they could only understand the level of panic it
creates amongst parents and students. The
threats may be a hoax, but when you see the
threat come in it causes fear and concern
amongst the parents,” Johnson pleaded.
On April 28, an emailed bomb threat affected
operations at over 200 schools across the
country. At the time, the TTPS said the server
used was based in Germany and the “resolve
host” of the email was traced to Cyprus. Two
Virtual Private Networks (VPN), used to hide the
identity of the email’s source were discovered to
be in Switzerland and Panama.
The message read, “We will come to you, with
weapons, we will kill everyone, no one will be left
alive, Trinidad will bleed.”
Guardian Media sent several questions to the
TTPS yesterday for an update on the
investigations into these threats but there was no
response.
PICTURE ADESH
DWARIKA/ FACEBOOK-
Adesh Dwarika, first vice president of the T&T
Unified Teachers Association /
President of the Presentation College,
Chaguanas’ Parent Teachers Advisory Board
Ravi Johnson