And we told you that the BNTU is standing behind Stella Maris. Today the president reiterated that commitment. She explained that there needs to be a balance between the difficult work that the staff at Stella Maris does and the need to hold someone accountable for Pablo's death. But she added that this one incident cannot negate the decades of care that the school has put into educating children with special needs.
Nadia Caliz, President, BNTU
"Before becoming the president of BNTU, I visited Stella Maris. I want the country to know before I became the president, I looked up all, within BNTU I have 10 membership groups. And so I had to touch base with the 10 membership groups."
"Special education is a part of that. And when I visited Stella Maris, the two times I went to Stella Maris, I had to stay at the gate because somebody had to let me in. So what happened, I don't know. That is something I need to find out."
"But I will support those teachers because of what I saw when I visited. There is love in that institution. And they need more resources, but they are doing the best that they can with the resources. And I can tell you that these teachers have been registering some of their challenges with the ministry."
"So when you see things like this happen, or something like this happening, don't get it twisted. Before this, you have paper trail of their concerns. And I'm happy, and I have to give, people say I like to big him up, but I have to give Minister Fonsca credit for the way he's handling it."
"Because he's not attacking the teachers, he's not bashing them. Because I am of the opinion that he has seen some of these documentations, all the concerns that they have been bringing to the attention of the powers that be."
"I am not saying that nobody should be held accountable. You have to hold people accountable for what transpired. And if we talk about accountability on another aspect, the community, now everybody is on all over social media. You can find cameras tracking the movement of the child, but why is it that nobody could have stopped and said, you know, let me hold his hand. Let me call the authorities. Everybody just look, look, look, look."
"And everybody wants to point finger and accuse. Everybody who saw that child, fail that child. Let's start there. Worse the school in front, Palloti, the failure starts there. Holding the child hand, going right across, should have been the best thing that would have."
"But they didn't. Now everybody's looking at the teachers. These teachers were already struggling. Special education is no easy task, you know. So I stand with the Stella Maris teachers. We stand behind them as a union. We're gonna give you all the support that you need. And if the evidence is showing that maybe there's a little slip here and there, then we need to put the system in place to correct that. But all your good work, we will not throw the door because of one mishap."
"And for the parents of that child, we sympathize with you because I haven't lost the child, but I lost the mom that I was close to. So I imagine what you're going through. And so we really actually sympathize with you."
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