Pandemonium broke out at the Roxanne Burnham Gardens Nursery School, shortly after 11:00hrs yesterday, when a man, armed with a cutlass and a can of Boss spray, entered the building, forced the headmistress, her teaching staff and pupils to lie face down on the floor, then ordered the teachers to hand over laptops and blackberry cellular phones in their possession. The children, screaming, were the first to obey the order, followed by the headmistress Ms. Yvette Clarke and her teachers. One of the teachers who, was slow to obey was dealt a severe blow to the head, then sprayed in the face at close range with Boss, and later had to be taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital.

But had it not been for the quick-wittedness and bravery of a four-year-old boy who darted out through one of the doors, unnoticed, and ran out into the street screaming and alerting the neighbourhood, there might have been serious injuries or even deaths, one teacher said.
She related that while the man was hotly pursuing her, brandishing the cutlass and threatening to “chop her up” with it, that the child escaped unnoticed.

The woman, at the first opportunity ran out of the building, and the intruder ran after her. It was then that the child darted through the gate shouting to villagers, “You all come quick; a man in de school with a cutlass and spray, and put every body to lie down pon de floor!”

Residents dropped what they were doing and immediately ran over to the school.
Meanwhile, the targeted teacher, who had a cellular phone in her pocket, once out of danger, quickly called an official of the Ministry of Education and the police were alerted. The police arrived quickly, the teachers said.

The harrowing ordeal lasted for just over fifteen minutes, one teacher said, recalling that the man showed up at the school around 11:10hrs and it was about around 11:30hrs when he finally ran through the back yard.

Relating the chilling experience, the teacher recalled that she was in the yard with the children when the man, about 24 years old, approached them asking for a child by a certain name. She said they had no such child on roll and he left the compound.
The teachers took the children back into the school building and a few minutes later, as the teacher was locking the grill on the door the man appeared again, this time asking for another child.  Again she replied that they had no such child.  Noticing that he was not satisfied, she referred him to the headmistress.

In a rage, he snapped at her, “Look, I ain’t got time fuh stupidness! Bring them two laptops you’ll got deh and yuh blackberry phones!” Then without notice, he pulled a long dagger-like weapon from his waist, the woman said, and began shouting “Everybody get down!”  He forced the children to lie face down in one corner of the school; the headmistress was on her face next to her desk while he continued to grill and terrorise two other teachers. But on realising that neither laptops nor blackberrys was forthcoming, frantically, he began pacing the floor, shouting in indignation, “Ah gun hurt! Ah gun hurt! Ah gun hurt!”

Then he turned to the teacher he had spoken to in the yard and swore he was going to chop her to pieces.  It was at this stage that she sprang up and ran through a door on the southern side of the building.  As the man went after her, the brave four-year-old boy slipped out and ran in search of help. As residents stormed the building, the intruder fled, without taking anything from the teachers or the pupils.