‘Shelter school’ springs to life at Godfrey Stewart High

Excited chatter filled Godfrey Stewart High School in Westmoreland last Wednesday as children’s voices echoed across the compound.

From the main office, teachers could be heard giving instructions to students gathered in a nearby classroom.

Vice-Principal Margaret Johnson explained that classes were under way for kindergartners, primary pupils, and high-schoolers – participants in a “shelter school” initiated after Hurricane Melissa by teacher Jamar Grant.

Grant said the idea emerged when he visited the school after the storm.

“As a teacher, I was just passing through out of curiosity to see what the property looked like after the hurricane and I saw all these students,” he told The Gleaner. “They were just up and down getting into trouble, being chatty, just being children ... . I thought, ‘How can I help them to be a little bit more engaged and to do something that will benefit them?’ ... . They deserve access to education.”

At the height of the storm’s impact, the school sheltered about 50 people. The mixed-age class – three sets of children – shares one large room.

Grant said the children’s boredom and lack of structure also convinced him that something needed to be done.

“When you see how education has transformed you as a person, which is my story, it’s difficult to watch students go without it – even in difficult times. I thought it [was] the least I could do … ,” he told The Gleaner.

“The second reason was, some of our teachers could not volunteer with us based on the damage to their homes; and we all suffered in our different ways. Well, I thought a part of the resilience our country has shown would require us also showing some level of resilience as teachers, giving what we give best, which is education to students. So even though we have suffered, there is still something we can give,” he added.

Grant, who heads the Literacy Department at Godfrey Stewart High, rallied teachers from the school and neighbouring institutions. Their efforts reflect the wider community’s determination to recover after Hurricane Melissa tore through New Hope, flattening landscapes and stripping trees bare. Yet, like many residents, Grant refused to be beaten.

The shelter school now hosts 20 to 25 students from kindergarten through to grade 10.

“Our kindergarten teacher is a PA student and he teaches at Savanna-la-Mar Infant School, just next door. The other three teachers, including myself, are staff here. Miss Johnson teaches grades five and six. Miss Wallace teaches grades three and four, and I teach from grade seven upwards,” he explained to The Gleaner.

Classes run Mondays to Thursdays; school does not meet on Fridays.

When The Gleaner visited, the children were in full activity mode. Perhaps fittingly, kindergartners were being taught history and about heroes, as the recovery exercise will require new heroes and heroic acts.

Grant explained that some of the children had previously been in the shelter. Although they had left, they return for day school.

“Likewise, some community members who also have children, they ask for permission to send their children and we accept them,” he said. “We also provide lunch for them.”

He explained that his losses in the hurricane paled in comparison to others, including staff, community members and children. Many of the children were also homeless.

With senior classes scheduled to resume yesterday, he said the administration is working to find a suitable space to continue the shelter school.

Grant praised the school’s administration, teachers, and donors for their support.

“Recovery is in our reach. When you look around and you see the communities we grew up in, they are mere remnants of what we knew them to be. It’s hard, but to understand that the remnants are within our reach. It means that we can reach out and do something. We all have something to give towards rebuilding our precious Westmoreland, and Jamaica as a whole,” he said.

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com