AN open storm drain at the front of Kensington Primary School in St Catherine is stirring uneasiness among parents and residents who fear for the safety of students

Reports reaching the Jamaica Observer indicate that students have been playing near the drain and have sustained injuries after falling in.

The students, the Observer was told, are instructed to walk through the school’s side gate located near the drain, instead of the main gate used by motorists.

When the newspaper visited the school last Friday, Principal Christine Hamilton declined to speak about the issue which, she said, has been plaguing the school for 24 years.

The Observer was told, however, that several calls were made to the Portmore Municipal Corporation to have the problem rectified but to date nothing has been done.

When Mayor of Portmore Leon Thomas was contacted he said the drain was constructed by developers to allow proper access for cleaning, and so covering the area would produce another challenge.

“If it is covered, nobody will be able to go under there, they will suffocate. It is not a council decision to have it open, it was the developer. Plenty people have built bridges across it to access a driveway to their properties, as it cannot totally be covered right through,” he said, noting that he has not received any reports about children who fell in the drain.

But a parent of children in grades two and three said on several occasions she has witnessed students interacting dangerously at the drain.

“There are times when I’m sitting there and I see the children pushing each other. I even witnessed an incident where [a] little girl was pushed in there,” she said, noting that she raised the concern at a parent-teacher meeting and was told it cannot be addressed.

Another parent of a grade four student added, “Deh so nuh safe, deh so waa cover up. It is a long stretch, not a small section that could be avoided.”

A grandmother also expressed displeasure at the open drain.

“It is a big concern. My granddaughter come home one day and say, ‘Yuh know somebody push a little boy in the drain and him drop and break his hand.’ Any help we can get to cover it, if is even to put a mesh over it, we would appreciate it,” she said.

At the same time, a 21-year-old woman who has a brother in grade three at the school added, “The drain is there and when the rain fall and the water build up, it worse. The drain being open isn’t safe for anyone.”

Likewise, residents had similar plights.

For Miss Thompson, who has been living there for 30 years, the problem is even worse. She shares the same drain as the school but the drainage wall at by her house has deteriorated, heightening her concerns.

“I thought it would be fixed before school open because I have to be watching the children. It is dangerous where the children are concerned; they jump down in it,” she said.

“When school over, because they see parents cross it, the children feel like say dem can jump over it too. It need fi fix, it is very dangerous. I don’t want anything to happen to them so mi haffi make noise and tell dem nuh go in it,” she said.

Another concerned resident, who has been living there for 15 years, said “It shoulda cover fi dem safety. Dem jump, skip and gwaan bad, a suh pickney stay. A di pickney dem playground.”

In the meantime, the mayor said drainage improvement in Portmore has started and he will be in dialogue with schools to find a possible solution to the problem.

“Right now we are doing some repairs to the drains because, if you notice, the wall collapsed. So, we are doing repairs to the drains and we started on Fourth Street and we are right across the municipality doing repairs to our collapsed drains, because since the last heavy rains a lot of these drain walls collapsed,” he said.

“These walls were not constructed with any steel so the wall [is] toppling over at this time. We will be working very closely with the schools to see how best we can prevent any accident when we actually reach to that location,” he said.