OCHO RIOS, St Ann – Classes at the Marcus Garvey Technical High School in St Ann’s Bay were suspended yesterday as students and teachers who turned up for the morning shift were prevented from entering the compound after they found the gates padlocked.

There has been a simmering discontent amongst some of the ancillary workers at the school who are said to be dissatisfied with working conditions at the institution, but there was no information to suggest that they were involved in the padlocking of the gates.

“When we turned up this morning the gate was padlocked,” the spokesperson said, adding: “We are not sure who did it,” said a school spokesman.

Entrance was gained to the premises yesterday after the locks were broken and removed by the police. It was, however, decided to suspend classes for the day due to the delay in starting the morning shift, which should have started at 7:15 am.

An estimated 1,000 students and dozens of staff members who turned up for the early shift at the two-shift institution, had to wait for nearly two hours before the locks were eventually removed.

But by then several students, who had waited patiently outside the gates, had started to wander and dozens began returning home. Both shifts were subsequently cancelled for the day.