Teachers protest killing of Pio Coc
You generally only hear about teachers mobilizing when there is a wage dispute, but today teachers and staff of the Belize Teachers’ Training College and members of the Belize National Teachers’ Union staged a protest against something of much greater concern: murder. News Five met the protesters on Princess Margaret Drive.
Three Toledo teachers were fired upon as they walked down West Canal in Belize City on the night of August 4th. Pio Coc was killed, Carlos Jackson hospitalized for gunshot wounds and his wife Albina badly shaken. Two teenage suspects are in police custody. They have been charged with a burglary in the same area, while the investigation into the murder continues. In the meantime the murdered teacher’s colleagues say the violence against members of their profession and attacks on students must stop.
Teacher #1
“I think basically it is because they are tired of the violence that is being committed against students and of late our teachers.
A couple of them are shocked over it from what I gather. Even me myself I am afraid. I live in the Yarborough area and I see people fussing and fighting and bursting bottles. And that’s the reason why I am here right now just to give support to the late brother Pio.”
Teacher #2
“One of the things that we are doing, we are expressing solidarity with the families who lost these teachers who were killed over the past couple days. And we want to solidarize with those parents who lost those children especially those young ladies who were killed over the past couple of weeks and months.”
The protest march, which began at the Belize Teachers’ Training College, ended at the Constitution Park. The murder has had a tremendous impact on the school and teachers, especially those from the districts are more afraid than ever of coming to the city to study.
Teacher #3
“Baisically I think the teachers will now be afraid to come up to Teachers’ College to be trained because of this incident.”
John Pinelo, President, B.N.T.U.
“Well definitely the union will have to make some kind of representation to the Minister of National Security to see what can be done to make things better for us. I think that we deserve to live in a safer place. We need to be able to do a few more things than we are doing to be able to live comfortably, safer and feel secure.”
The National Committee for Families and Children, NOPCA and a number of other agencies are also continuing the protest against crime, particularly the murder and abuse of children at an Ecumenical rally this Sunday. The event takes place at the Pound Yard in Belize City at Five p.m. NOPCA is also asking the public to buy yellow ribbons tomorrow August 13th to help raise funds to employ a counselor for victims of abuse.
