Mr. Cardigan Connor
In a Government Press Conference held on Tuesday afternoon, September 25th, among several matters discussed were two incidents of bullying and deviant behaviour at The Valley Primary School.
Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge, Minister of Education, first focused on sharing information on the building, rebuilding and renovation of schools, namely the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, the Morris Vanterpool Primary School, the Orealia Kelly Primary and the Valley Primary. She then zeroed in on the troubling incidents at Valley Primary and addressed the uncanny acts of student behaviour last Tuesday and Friday.
She stated: “There are a couple of incidents that occurred at The Valley Primary School last week. Last Tuesday there was an incident involving a child who used a plastic bag to place over a little boy’s head in the bathroom. The Ministry is working along with the affected child’s mom to make sure that he gets the best possible treatment for the trauma he experienced. More than one child was involved in this act, and all who were directly involved were placed on suspension.
“Counselling has been provided for all the children, including those who carried out the act, since these too would have had some effects as a result of what they did, and the response from the community at large. Counselling is also being provided for children at the school who might not have been directly involved in the situation. We understand that many parents were concerned with respect to their children’s safety.
“The whole assembly met at the school last Thursday and the Social Development Officers addressed the entire assembly at that time. Counsellors visited the school and held small group sessions with the children of Grade 3 to 6. There will be periodic follow-ups as a result of these sessions.
“On Friday of last week there was another incident at The Valley Primary School where a child in the Emotional Behavioural Difficulties Unit was found to have a knife in his pocket. The teacher took the knife from him, police was called, and his older sister came in to collect the child from the school. That child has also been suspended, and the Support Services Unit is assessing this situation to see what can done to enhance the Emotional Behavioural Difficulties Unit at the school.”
Minister Richardson-Hodge expressed concern with regard to these incidents. She said that the school had installed a custodian a few years ago, and one of the concerns is that when Tuesday’s incident occurred, the custodian was not at the school. She said it was decided to place an additional custodian at the school in order to help prevent such occurrences in the future.
In addressing the matter of labour, Minister Richardson-Hodge said: “We have been regularly placing in The Anguillian updated sections of the draft Labour Code. That process will continue, and soon we will have a compiled version from the Attorney General’s Chambers. This means that all the sections that were placed in the paper in the last few weeks, and those that will be placed in the coming weeks, will be consolidated and brought to Executive Council for approval. Once it is approved by Executive Council, we will take it out for public consultation again. The compiled version of the revised Labour Code will be also on the Government of Anguilla website.
“In terms of the job market, we have had job fairs at Four Seasons, Cap Juluca and Cuisiart hotels. There will be more job fairs coming up over the coming weeks, as more hotels prepare to open, so I would encourage those who are seeking jobs to pay attention when these announcements are made so that they would have an opportunity to present themselves for available jobs in the hotel sector.
“We, at the Ministry of Labour, are looking at conducting some training sessions for persons seeking employment. These sessions would cover areas like: preparing resumes, interview skills, proper dress for work, workplace attitude, etc. We want to ensure that our people are able to put their best foot forward when entering the job market.”
One notable point that Chief Minister Banks addressed was the subject of Brexit and what occurred in a recent meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May. He said: “On September 20th Prime Minister Theresa May attended a meeting in Salzburg where she met with leaders of the EU with whom the UK has been negotiating Brexit for the past two years. It was hoped that these leaders would agree in principle to the UK’s proposal for settlement.
Mr. Banks remarked that it was very important for us to keep abreast as to what was happening with Brexit because it would impact us in a number of ways. He said the entire press release, part of which he read, will be published in The Anguillian.”
The Chief Minister also referred to a list of activities that will take place during the month of October which is Financial Information Month. The theme for the month of activities will be: “Financial Empowerment Through Education”.
He remarked that one of the things that our nation needs to be prepared for is the future widespread use of crypto-currencies in the face of changing times. He emphasized that the way transactions are carried out is rapidly changing and we need to be abreast of what is happening around us financially — and to be prepared to meet such changes.
Mr. Curtis Richardson, Minister of Infrastructure, addressed issues such as electricity and water. With regard to water, he mentioned that Government had won a recent legal matter with respect to the Water Corporation of Anguilla. He also mentioned that there was an application from Mr. Calvert “Junie” Fleming for the installation of a water plant in the Cuisinart – Rendezvous area. He noted that this matter still has to come before the Executive Council.
With regard to the airport project, Mr. Richardson stated: “We have made a stepping stone towards the airport expansion. An agreement was made between the government, the ICA group and the CCC group out of Canada. We have now decided to make another step as a consequence of this agreement, and we have now determined that the Canadian CCC group will be solely responsible for leading the airport expansion project.”
Minister Richardson said that he continues to applaud the Lake’s family who is involved with the ICA group and the Legacy Conch Bay Project. He said that he thanks them for willingly sitting at the table as landowners to discuss developmental plans.
Mr. Richardson continued: “As far as Agriculture and Fisheries is concerned, I want to thank Mr. Patrick Vanterpool and Mr. Othlyn Vanterpool, who is the Special Assistant for Agriculture and Fisheries, for working along with Mr. William Vanterpool on the Agricultural Policy. This policy should be going to Executive Council soon for discussion. This policy deals with defending our farmers and giving them support with their produce in terms of granting them duty-free concessions that they have been requesting over a number years.”
The final speaker was Mr. Cardigan Connor, Parliamentary Secretary, with responsibility for Tourism. He said: “The Tourism Marketing Week was very productive. We got a solid input from all of our stakeholders. In the next few weeks we will have more discussions with government entities like customs, immigration, and ASPA, concerning their roles in our tourism industry. Towards this end, the Anguilla Tourist Board will be doing quite a lot of work with these entities.
“November is the month when most of the hotels will reopen, although it is believed that a couple of them, namely Zemi Beach and Four Seasons, will reopen as early as mid-October.”
Mr. Connor said that plans are in the making for a cleanup exercise to take place in the last two weeks of the month of October and that more information will be announced on the plan later.
He continued: “As we go forward into a new season, we want to be better than we were last year. We have been given the tag for being number one in the Caribbean, Bahamas and Bermuda, for the second year running. That says a lot, considering what the last year has brought us. At the end of the day, it is all about our people — not just our beaches, our restaurants or our hotels. We know within ourselves that we can improve. So let’s put ourselves in a category where we are not being judged against others, but it’s that we have our own standards.”
The conference ended with questions from the press which were well answered and entertained by the Ministers.
