French Quarter Middle School: the PE teachers are no longer having class
Some of the PE teachers’ demands since the 2015/2016 school year in French Quarter Middle School include: "an inspection by the Security Commission for the basketball posts and handball goals, the installation of two more basketball backboards, a door in the girls locker room and a new lock for the outside doors".
"At the beginning of the school year in 2015, we were told that the basketball backboards would be replaced. Just for the record, they had been destroyed by the cyclone Gonzalo, which occurred in October 2014, one year earlier. At the same time in 2015, we orally requested locks that work for the locker rooms", explained the teachers who are still waiting for these needed improvements in September 2016.
"The gymnasium was considerably deteriorated by graffiti and other obscene messages in November 2015", they added. "The girls locker rooms still don’t have doors, their locker room is used as a corridor and the one in the boys locker room can no longer be opened from the outside. Now, we no longer go to the gymnasium. We go in classrooms… It’s difficult especially since our school is part of a high-priority education network", they said. Therefore, they decided to take the bull by the horns and stop having class. They welcome the students, stay with them but no longer ask them to play sports.
After several meetings with representatives from the Ministry of Education and the Collectivité during the last twelve months, the teachers sent a letter and met with the representative of the Superintendant of Schools on September 9. "The latter has informed the President of the Collectivité about the situation. We can see that they’re starting to get on the ball… people have been coming and taking measurements. Four of the basketball backboards out of the six required have been installed but we are waiting for the Security Commission to come and inspect them before using them," said the teachers whose actions are supported by the SNEP Trade Union.
Other requests have been made such as the installation of lockers or cabinets for the students’ personal belongings in order to avoid theft, the installation of benches under the carbets for taking breaks, storage racks to protect the equipment from seawater and the securing of the equipment room in order to avoid thefts and making the Collectivité have to replace the stolen equipment.
