Jones gives details of Combermere ‘sabotage’

DELIBERATE ACTS OF sabotage could be behind recent problems at Combermere School.

The suggestion was made by Minister of Education Ronald Jones today as he highlighted three incidents which followed completion of the most recent work done to correct issues at the school plant.

While delivering a Ministerial Report on Combermere in the House of Assembly, Jones suggested deliberate actions may have led to some of the issues which resulted in disruption at the Waterford school.

Read the full statement here.

Jones said after various reports and activities designed to bring some normalcy back to the school, there was new evidence of “deliberate attempts to sabotage the work which has been taking place over the last several months”.

In the first incident cited, he said that on January 26 “hand towels and children’s book leaves were found to be blocking drainage pipes in a toilet in the area where some complaints had originated”.

“This act would have allowed sewerage gases to have been released into those spaces if they were not identified and corrected by an external plumber and artisan at the school,” Jones said.

Relating another incident that be believed could have had a similar result, he said: “Last week we found after closure of one of the labs where natural gas was present, that on return of the teacher to that lab some 45 minutes after her exit, that two of those natural gas pipes were turned on and left.”

Jones regretted these developments and gave the assurance that the situation at the school was still being closely monitored. (GC)