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Par­ents of stu­dents at­tend­ing Bel­mont Sec­ondary School have in­ten­si­fied calls for ur­gent in­ter­ven­tion from ed­u­ca­tion au­thor­i­ties, warn­ing they are pre­pared to shut down the in­sti­tu­tion for a day if long­stand­ing con­cerns over lead­er­ship, safe­ty and stu­dent wel­fare are not ad­dressed.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, for­mer head of the school’s Par­ent-Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion (PTA), Shur­lan­da Mal­colm, said con­di­tions at the school have de­te­ri­o­rat­ed sig­nif­i­cant­ly in re­cent months.

“Some of the re­ports are that stu­dents are com­ing in with knives. Class­es are be­ing re­duced to as lit­tle as two sub­jects a day be­cause of high staff ab­sen­teeism. Par­ents are fed up and tired. If it has to come to shut­ting down the school for a day, we will take that ac­tion,” Mal­colm said.