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Metro New York
Caribbean L 26 ife, DECEMBER 6-12, 2019
Haitian schools reopen
after months of unrest
By Evens Sanon
and Michael Weissenstein
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Protected
by police patrols, thousands of
Haitian children began to return to school
Monday after months of violent unrest
forced schools to shut around the country
.S
ome schools were about a quarter full
in response to the Education Ministry’s
call last week to reopen public and private
schools. Others had only a handful of students
or didn’t open at all.
Like virtually all government offices
and private businesses, Haitian schools
closed during more than two months of
protests aimed at pressuring President
Jovenel Moise to leave office. Protesters
say Moise has mismanaged the economy
and tolerated corruption. Moise says he is
trying to steer the country toward greater
stability and will not cede to what he
calls unconstitutional demands for him to
leave office before his term is over.
High school senior Yollande Chery
arrived at her school to find only four
other students and one teacher.
“It hurts knowing that in other countries
schools are in session,” she said.
“Staying home is not what I want to do. I
want to be at school with my friends.”
At the public Lycee de Petionville, in a
relatively prosperous section of the capital,
about 400 children showed up for class.
The school holds about 2,000 students
when at full enrollment.
Director Jean-Marc Charles said the
school had been trying to keep older students
up to date by sending them homework
assignments through online chat
program WhatsApp.
He said the school would hold classes
on Saturdays and eliminate all but a couple
of days of Christmas vacation in order
to help students try to catch up on their
studies.
He said that the school had no choice
but to close during the protests, which
included roadblocks, clashes with police
and ransacking of local businesses.
“Protests were happening while kids
A student carries a chair in a classroom
at the Lycée School in Petion-
Ville, Haiti, Monday, Dec. 2, 2019. Haitian
children have begun to return to
school on Monday after classes halted
during months of violent unrest.
Associated Press / Dieu Nalio Chery
were in the classroom,” he said. “That was
causing panic, and kids couldn’t go home
sometimes due to roadblocks. That was
traumatic.”
In Port-au-Prince, police cars patrolled
outside many reopening schools.
In other cities, such as Gonaives in
northern Haiti, many schools were closed
due to continued roadblocks and fear of
violence.
The same was true in neighborhoods
of Port-au-Prince, where administrators
declined to open Monday despite the government
call for classes to restart.
Marie-Bernard Noel, 39, supports her
three children by selling snacks of boiled
eggs and peanut-butter sandwiches to students
at the Centre Classique Don Bosco,
whose director returned Monday even
though students had yet to arrive.
Noel said Monday that school reopening
would help her make a living, but
she was deeply frustrated that the private
school where she sends her 7-year-old and
4-year-old remained shut.
“I’ve had to use my savings to feed my
kids,” she said. “Everyone has lost out. The
country has lost out.”
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