BY LEIGHTON WILLIAMS AND RASBERT TURNER, STAR Reporters
THE BRAETON PRIMARY and Junior High School was ordered closed on Monday because the St. Catherine Health Department said the institution was unsanitary.
The school was one of 14 in St. Catherine which was ordered closed by the health department because it was deemed unhealthy. It was the only school in Portmore to get the thumbs down from the Ministry of Health regarding its sanitation.
In his report to the St. Catherine Parish Council, Chief Public Health Inspector for St. Catherine Samuel Cameron said he wrote to the Ministry of Education about 14 schools in the parish where health concerns existed and ordered those institutions be closed. He said the order was issued for Braeton after the bathroom was found to be in a deplorable condition.
The Ministry of Education confirmed they received the letter last week. However, no no one was able to comment on why the school's bathrooms were allowed to deteriorate as senior Ministry officials said they were not briefed about the conditions at the school. When contacted, the school's administration refused to comment on the situation.
In his report, Cameron said the school was ordered closed after an inspection carried out on the eight stalls revealed that they posed health risks to both students and teachers. He said the school's bathrooms were built to accommodate 400 children with five of the bathrooms for the girls and three for the boys. But, the school population has swelled to almost a 1000.
He said that remedial work has been done at Braeton since its closure and as such, school will reopen on Monday November 14. He said the school's bathrooms were repaired this week and they were also repainted. He said the school yard was also bushed. However, the school's tuck shop which was also cited in the report was ordered to remain closed.
The chief public health inspector said the school was inspected on November 9 and the authorities were satisfied with the work being done when the permission to re-open was granted.
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