Teachers and support staff at Charlotte Amalie High School reportedly have been assured that six students involved in a violent incident on the campus less than a month ago will not be permitted to return Friday and classes are to resume.
Teachers and other staff walked out Thursday to protest the students' planned return on grounds that they threaten the safety of everyone at the school.
"We will not go back in until we get some concession or relief to this threat to our safety," said physical education teacher Arthur Solomon.
The incident, which occurred Feb. 17, was extremely serious, according to CAHS teachers. Fights broke out all over the school, bottles were thrown and ultimately two students had to be treated at Roy L. Schneider Hospital for stab wounds.
The teachers, according to Solomon, were prepared to stay out of classrooms if the issue is not resolved.
Glen J. Smith, president of the St. Thomas-St. John chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, said the Education Department has reversed, temporarily, Deputy Superintendent William Frett's decision to allow the six students to return to class.
Smith, too, noted the seriousness of the offenses they are alleged to have committed.
"Students who were involved were armed," he said. "Two were stabbed and required medical treatment."
Smith said he heard a gun was brandished although it was never recovered.
"We must protect the rights of the majority of the students who are willing to learn," he said, adding, "Students told me they don't want those students here. They are a threat to the (students') safety."
Smith told the Source a position paper will be developed flatly stating that "the students are not wanted back on the CAHS campus."
A teacher at the school later reported that the paper had been developed and delivered to the superintendent's office late Thursday afternoon.
Simmonds told Radio One on Friday morning she was reviewing the document. She said she expected to have a response for the teachers by Friday afternoon.
Karen Andrews, chief labor negotiator, met Thursday with Frett and CAHS principal Jeanette Smith at the school.
"Emotions were high" among teachers and staff, she said, adding the concerns were legitimate.
However, there is an appeal process that teachers could have gone through instead of the job action, Andrews told the Source.
She said two of the students in the fracas had been expelled.
The six students who are effectively suspended until further notice reportedly may appeal their punishment, but Smith does not believe they should be allowed to returned to the CAHS campus.
"The superintendent said he intends to inform the parents of the students that they are to remain at home until further notice," he said, calling on the government to develop a formal alternative education program for these students.
Alternative education choices are limited in the territory, Smith acknowledged, but do exist.
"This is one area where government has failed, although the AFT has clamored for the development of this type of program," Smith said.
Solomon, a physical education instructor, does not believe Thursday's walkout should have been necessary. Frett, who reportedly made the decision to permit the student's return, should have followed the disciplinary code, he said.
"It's in the hands of the leadership of the Education Department," Solomon said. "The decision is theirs to make. If they want us to teach, they must keep these kids off the campus."
Whether the CAHS protest at Charlotte Amalie High School is over, Solomon said, depends upon the sincerity of administrators who are obliged to enforce discipline to ensure a safe campus.
