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And when we got to the women they were positively incensed, furious at what they call termination due to political victimization, and ready to tell anyone and everyone.

Ingrid Hernandez, Former School Warden
"It's not about the job termination really, yes it hurts yes it bothers but like I always say expect the unexpected but it was in the manner of how it happened. To me it's unprofessional for you to call somebody and tell them that your services are no longer required and then when you come for your letter they are not here and the letter was not presented to you. We just got the letter probably because we are speaking out they gave us the letter."

"First of all, we shouldn't even be coming here for our letter, they are the one terminating us so they are the ones who should have brought the letter to us but we still had the decency to come for our own letter and then yet they didn't have it provided and the next thing why I'm speaking out and why I'm saying it's political victimization is because a lot of us work at the school, we were hired, and yes perhaps we were hired under a U.D.P government but that doesn't mean that you had supported the party. I have a colleague here that work as a warden and she never displays political affiliation with neither of the party and yet she is being victimized."

"Your victimizing single mothers, then now they put new Wardens there who don't have any training in what to do and how to run the affairs of the school compound you know."

Cherisse Halsall:
"Tell, me what happened this morning when you came here to collect your letter?"

Agnes Thompson, Former School Warden
"Well, first of all, the young lady that called the principal is not here and that is purposeful because she knows it would be something different if she was here. She intentionally called in sick for not to be here to give us this letter in our hands."

Cherisse Halsall:
"So, why come to the teacher's college, UB to get the letter?"

Agnes Thompson, Former School Warden
"Well, this is the problem, I don't know why but they say we were to be here instead of going to the school that we work at so I was here before 8:00 this morning and she wasn't here."

Cherisse Halsall:
"When you were told that you'd be terminated were you given any reason?"

Agnes Thompson, Former School Warden
"None at all even the termination letter doesn't state anything."

Cherisse Halsall:
"You feel that this is politically motivated, is that right?"

Agnes Thompson, Former School Warden
"It's definitely politically motivated. My party changes, everybody knows that I am a supporter of the UDP, everybody know that I am a street captain for Ms. Beverley Williams in Belize rural Central so it was just a matter of time but this time specifically is more than likely wrong, you know, I am almost time to go on maternity leave, and according to my understanding a mother expecting should never be terminated, so I will seek further advice on this."

Ingrid Hernandez, Former School Warden
"They need to stop this political victimization, stop firing people because they believe that you are politically affiliated, that's not fair. We put our lives on the line when we are at school and we have to be facing the public. We are the first encounter before any of those the public meets with the teachers or the principal, we are the first encounter and our lives could be in danger with people that come in and we don't know who they are in contact with and what do they have but and we don't look at politics either because when we work at the school if a child comes to us and tells us they are hungry, we won't look at political affiliation, we feed that child, we are there to nurture them, we are there as parents, as friends, as mentors many times. Our school warden job is not just a school warden dressed up in green, but we go beyond the call of being a school warden. we take our job seriously."

And while that's the story the Warden's are telling, the Ministry of Education has a different perspective altogether. We contacted them for an official comment this evening and they told us that they are currently in the process of conducting a comprehensive countrywide review of the school security warden programme.

According to Ministry personnel, a complete inventory has become necessary due to what they are calling mid-pandemic abuses of the system. The situation on the ground is that some schools are finding it hard to give account of the personnel employed as their school wardens, some of whom have not reported to their respective schools since March of 2020 and some of whom remain on the payrolls of those schools.

Now, the ministry says there is a need to recruit new people to act as wardens in an environment where that role, which now includes the critical task of monitoring Covid protocols, has become exceedingly important.

The Ministry says that they cannot have a situation where wardens have become quote : "invisible." and add that some personnel who had been appointed wardens were posted to institutions that weren't schools at all.