Frustration Builds at Holy Angels; Parents Keep Children Home
In the south, another school is facing its own challenges. Parents of Holy Angels RC School in Pomona Village have demanding improvement in the condition of the rat-infested classrooms. The school is under the management of the Roman Catholic Diocese, specifically under Father Rodolfo Garcia. The parents, teachers, and students are pointing the finger at the management for having neglected the needs of the students and teachers. For years, the school building has been deteriorating to the point that is has become a home for rats, bats, and termites. A few weeks ago, the building was shut down by the Ministry of Health after it deemed the building inhospitable and a hazard to human health. The matter has also negatively affected the education of the students. About sixty thousand dollars is needed to rehabilitate the school of which the Roman Catholic management wants to donate two thousand dollars. The two thousand dollars is for repairs for a building which it owns. The parents say they have had enough with what they describe as a ‘dysfunctional management’ and today they decided to keep their children home in protest. At most, forty-five students out of the three hundred plus showed up for classes. Daneli Pineda is one of the parents who spoke to News Five on Monday.
Daneli Pineda
Daneli Pineda, Parent
“We fully support the teachers and the parents that they need help at this school. In the building we have too much rats, rat bats, roaches. We have scorpions. Basically the kids can catch some kind of disease from it.”
Hipolito Novelo
“How long has that been the situation?”
Daneli Pineda
“Well as far as I know, it is long time. We as the parents we just step down our foot and finally we are saying that we need help because if we wait for until they come in we won’t have any kind of help. Like I say, we cannot give any money because half of the parents don’t have a job and the cost of living is high. For the kids to come to school we basically have to do with what we have. So we need the Catholic to come up with something or the Ministry of Education. As far as we know the father told the school that if we can’t help as parents then send the kids home. From today we are going to put our foot down so today we will take them home so we can show him that we need the school.”
Hipolito Novelo
“He said to take the students home?”
Daneli Pineda
“Yes that is what they told us in a meeting on Friday.”
Hipolito Novelo
“What was your first reaction to that?”
Daneli Pineda
“To my suggestion, well he doesn’t care about the kids and their education.”
