A 27-year-old teacher is now fearful for her life, after her abusive ex-partner reportedly breached security protocols at a public secondary school in the city to confront her in front of a classroom full of students.

Since August, 2017 the man has been evading the police though several attempts have been made to arrest him for questioning with regards to a string of allegations from threatening language, to assault causing bodily harm, defamation of character and most recently, simple larceny.

In an interview with Guyana Chronicle on Monday, the teacher, Coleen Rogers, said the incident has left her traumatised and at the same time fearful for her life. Rogers said after more than two years of allegedly being battered at the hands the man, she mustered the courage to break ties with him around October, 2017 but the torment did not end there, with Monday being one of the worse incidents since. Rogers and the man hail from Linden, Region 10, but now live separate lives in the city.

According to the high school teacher, it was while she was teaching a morning class that the man barged into her classroom and demanded that she speak with him. “He was like Miss, I want to show you something, I want to show you something. We have to talk,” Rogers recalled.

Her pleas to have him leave the classroom fell on deaf ears. “I was packing up my bag to head to the headteacher’s office when he all of a sudden snatched my phone,” she added. Rogers pursued him to the parking lot but he jumped into his car and drove away. In a state of panic, Rogers asked another teacher to inform the headmistress of the incident, and that she was proceeding to the station to file a report. A report was subsequently filed at the East La Penitence Police Station.

Questioned how her ex-partner was able to pass the security guards on duty to access the class room, Rogers contended that the security guard on duty and the man are friends, and may have been given permission to access the school’s compound. Though Monday’s incident did not entail a physical confrontation, Rogers said it could have been worse; emphasising that there is an established system at the school for visitors and should have been upheld.

“The situation would have been detrimental knowing the type of person the young man is, seeing that he would have threatened the lives of persons close to me, and also me. So since he would have entered the classroom I felt a sense of fear and I was in shock and dismay at his presence,” the still traumatised teacher told this newspaper.

“Because I know the type of person he is, I tried to console the situation to prevent the students’ lives from being in harm’s way, so I decided to pack up and head to the head teacher’s office, but he snatched the phone,” the English teacher added.
When the Guyana Chronicle contacted the secondary school on Monday, the head teacher said the matter had not yet been brought to the school’s administration attention.

However, she said that there is an established protocol at the school for visitors. It was explained that all visitors are expected to check in with the security guard on duty, provide Identification Cards and sign in a log book. All visitors are then expected to be directed to the head teacher’s office, where requests are made to speak with either a teacher or a student. All “meetings” are expected to take place in the vicinity of the head teacher’s office.

Over at the East La Penitence Police Station where the incident was reported, the matter is being investigated. Additionally, attempts were made to have him arrested, inclusive of checks at his Turning Point Tucville home, but he was not there. Rogers told this newspaper that 2018 got off to a rocky start.

It was explained that in addition to sending friend requests to all of her close friends on the popular social media network – Facebook – the man published several photos of her with messages that sought to defame her character as a private citizen and as a public servant of Guyana on January 1, 2018. A report of the matter was made at the Brickdam Police Station, the East La Penitence Police Station and the Ruimveldt Police Station. Screenshots of the messages and photos were shown to the Guyana Chronicle.

Additionally, in the lead up to 2018, the man also allegedly threatened the young teacher that if she did not return to his residence he would have taken stern actions against her.
“This is all over Guyana social media. You have up to today to turn up when I done make these fliers, plus fb (Facebook) it going, so continue…You have up to 4 o clock to meet me.

Let see who will get the biggest hurt. I will shake up everybody I promise you. Later plan ‘A’ starting, so far you only get smoke,” the man wrote to Rogers in a series of Whatsapp messages on December 18, 2017. The messages were also shown to this newspaper. It is alleged that the accused would periodically trace the teacher but would evade police presence whenever a report is made.

Rogers said it is her hope that her ex-partner be caught before he follows through with his threats. “I am not going to lie, in the past I sympathised with him, I believed his lies, that he loved me and he would have changed, but all those are just promises.

I want nothing to do with him because as women, we must stand up for ourselves, stand up against domestic violence and gender-based violence. My only hope now is for him to be caught to allow justice to take its course. As women we need to take a firm stands against domestic violence and speak out, no longer can we be silent, and no longer will I be silent.”