–for students, teachers and parents

WHILE the Ministry of Education has sent out an order banning school parties for Secondary Schools in Georgetown, some teachers, parents and students were not in agreement with the order.

Twenty-two-year-old Gabréllé Cummings, who’s attached to the East Ruimveldt Secondary School said on Live Buzz on Guyana Chronicle’s Facebook Page that she felt it was an unnecessary course of action.

The young teacher complied with the order at her school, but is hosting the ‘party the students didn’t have’, theming it ‘MOOD’, tomorrow at the YWCA on Brickdam.
In the interview, Cummings explained that the students of her class were disappointed, since they were anticipating their party. In fact, Cummings said when the ‘memo’ came, they compiled as a class, a list of songs they will play at their party.

“We were sitting there going through the list, and we were throwing out the songs with the curse words, and picking the songs. And the ‘memo’ came, and I didn’t know how I was going to tell them. But I thought to myself, if you’re going to have school parties, all of the things that were in the memo, you’re supposed to do as a teacher,” Cummings said. “It’s mandated that you supervise your children. You are supposed to be looking at them. If all these things are happening in the schools, this means that the teachers aren’t supervising them. That means that when the party is happening in the east wing or west wing or wherever, the teachers are elsewhere.”

She said that at her school, there was never a case of violence on school-party day, and to take away the party from the students was a punishment they didn’t deserve.
“And that was one of the things that triggered me. All through the year, multiple things happen, and nothing is being done. But this is the reason they are going to pull this party… I remember one time we had a terrible incident where they had weapons and all sorts of things in a school fight at our school. And the next day, the ministry came to check records… I believe that it was an unnecessary course of action,” she told ‘The Buzz’.

She noted further that the Ministry seemed to have failed to realise that other parties still happen around Georgetown, where the same things are more likely to happen. These parties, she said, are the lessons parties that the children go to after school.

Notwithstanding the aforementioned, the young teacher made it clear that her party is in no way in retaliation to the Ministry’s order. In fact, she explained that it started out as a small party in her yard for students of her class, since they petitioned her to keep one for them to get to wear the clothes they had already bought and so forth.

However, Cummings said after word started to spread about her party for her class, teachers from across the country started reaching out to her to collaborate to host one big party for all the students.

So these teachers came together, and the party is set for tomorrow from 15:00 – 21:00hrs with tickets costing $1,000.

Cummings said since she had to expand the event, they had to implement a fee, because she wants to ensure that the children are in a safe environment.

“We would usually have many parties going on around Georgetown, apart from the school parties they have in school. All these lessons parties they have on the day after school. But one thing I noticed about these events that happen on that day, there is no security. You would hear children come back in school January saying this happened to them and that happened to them,” she said. “I kept a lot of those things in mind while planning. At our event, we’re having security. A private security service is going to ensure that the children are in there safe; no knives and weapons in the party. They’ll be searched. Teachers enter the party free, and they are not there to party but to supervise. When it comes to drugs and alcohol, that will be prohibited. The main concern for me is that they are there, and they are safe, and will have a good time. That’s why we are trying to appeal to parents who are sending their children that they will be in a safe zone. We also have parents who will be attending.”

In addition to that, she said that they also have transportation that will be taking the children home. There will be a bus that departs the venue hourly to take children home for the duration of the party.