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The two day workshop will enable teachers to learn about the various techniques and forms in dance, music and art so that they can shine in the annual Festival of the Arts showcase. Jomarie Lanza has this report.

In preparation for the Annual Festival of Arts showcase, secondary school Teachers from across the country gathered at the Bliss Center today to partake in a two day workshop to learn about the different techniques in dance, art and music. Director for ICA Kim Vasquez says teaching arts is itself an art:

Kim Vasquez, Director, ICA
"Well we want to have of course the expressive arts in schools always, both for the festival of arts and as well as part of education and so this is our way of partnering with the ministry of education very early in the year to kickstart the process. And there will be more training for teachers in the expressive arts as the year goes along. We are of course in the preparation stage of festival of arts, this has always been an exciting time for us we know that the festival of arts season kicks of with preschool festival in the middle of march and right on the heels of that this year will be the secondary festival of arts and so this is also what we have been doing since last year. The secondary festival of arts was an area that we wanted to give a little extra focus to both with the ministry of education and NICH to build capacity and to get more students participating at the high school level. Participation is always good across the board from preschool, primary and secondary we want children we want students to grow in the festival of arts but sometimes we notice at the high school level other things other factors come into play, graduation, CXC, workload, there is a lot but there is also a need for additional support because this is the time when careers start being decided, when if you are going to be more involved in music seriously or dance seriously or drama as a career, if this is something that you want to take up beyond your high school years, this is the time to really hold onto them and support them. So we really need the secondary level of the festival of arts to be strong."

Vasquez says that there has been an increase in participation in the showcase over the years, and hopefully with guidance from dance facilitators like Crysel Gabourel Moro, these teachers will be able to retain and pass on all that they've learned from these workshops onto their students.

Crysel Gabourel Moro, Dance Facilitator
"Well festival of Arts has been here since the 90's the workshop is to help educate the teachers to properly train students in order to come and give a full performance on stage in the areas of drama in the areas of music in the areas of dance, How to put together all of these items how to differentiate between the different styles and techniques and genres and give them all the knowledge that we can possibly do to give better performances when they come on stage."

"A representative from each of the secondary schools are here right now, what we do is we send out a call through ministry and then the schools select the teachers that are normally the ones in charge of sending the information back or putting together festival items for their school and then we brought everybody to the central point here in Belize City so that we can do a full workshop and nobody is left out."

And one teacher all the way from Toledo sure wasn't left out today. Stefan Nolberto, a teacher at Julian Cho technical High school says that he saw the importance of participating in this workshop, which is why he made an effort to attend.

Stefan Nolberto, Teacher, Julian Cho Tech
"The festival of arts coming from Toledo is not something we primarily take focus in and what had happened is my administration wanted to break that and that is essentially how I ended up here."

"And that is why I find this workshop very vital. Why? Because it focuses on the three main parts of the arts, we have music, dance and also drama."

"One of the most things I am going to take back to my students is to be open minded I believe that my students focus on primarily, one aspect of the arts and you can blame them for that so what we have learnt today from this workshop is that the arts is not a competition, it's about honing skills and trying to see if we could master not only one but hopefully all three."

And turning back now to the commissioner of police, we asked the Compol about the subject of mass deportations - as a consequence of US President Trump's immigration crackdown.

The Compol says when they start coming - not all of them will be treated as deportees:

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I do not keep track of all deportees unless they're a person who may have some violent or criminal past and again I see a lot of rumbling in the public domain in terms of what is going to happen to those persons who will be deported from the US because the deportee law is there which speaks to what must be done but may I say that we are to going to treat all those people who will be sent back home as a deportee for the simple reason that if you were living in the States, you were trying to make life for yourself and you did not have a criminal past, either here or in the US, and they decide to pick you up and send you back home. I don't think it is going to be right for us to have you reporting every week to the police station so in those instances, we're going to waive it. We're only going to have those persons who have some criminal past or who are being deported for criminal reasons. Those who are not for criminal reasons, we will waive the process."

Reporter:
"Have you been contacted by your counterparts in the US to see if any of those fugitives like Ellis Meighan, Brady Tillett, I don't remember the other gentleman's name to see if they have been captured and they're going to send these men back?"

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I believe that those persons were still in custody awaiting, I don't know how they did it, if they keep them in custody or they release them, awaiting asylum hearing or whatever but from what I have been made to understand, they would have still been in custody awaiting asylum hearing or whatever, so I don't know. But we have not been notified if they are among those persons who will be sent back shortly."

Will Returning Deportees Cause Crime To Spike? Minister Is Probes That Thought

And what about the possible effect of deportations on the crime rate? We asked Minister Musa about the report that 899 Belizeans were listed in November as non detained persons who have no current status in the US - usually meaning they are asking for asylum or some other protective status.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"I don't know whether that's an accurate number. It's not a concern, per se. We do know that that is a policy decision of the new Trump administration. And so we do expect some deportees to be coming back, not necessarily violent offenders. I know my friend Jules Vasquez, again, in attacking the numbers, is saying all the criminals went to State, they're coming home now, doom and gloom. Do you know better than I do? One criminal gone, five more grow up the next day. That's not how this works. Migration has happened since the 70s and 80s continues to this day. And I know you need a reason to explain away the numbers, but Jules this is a fact of life. And yes, we have to prepare ourselves for the deportation."

Reporter:
"What preparations are we speaking of in terms of being able to perhaps deal with those who have a criminal past in the United States and are sent back home?"

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"Well, we are going to deal with whether they have a criminal past here in Belize or if they are pending charges, for instance, I believe, Ellis Meighan is one of them. If there are others, then we will, if there is enough evidence, then those individuals will be charged. And so the police department obviously has a roster of these individuals that they will be keeping an eye on and if necessary, charge up on their return."

Jules Vasquez:
"We could have an escalation in crime. Doctor Gayle was very cautious in saying that even if you don't admit the truth of what is driving down the crime rate, you as the policy makers have to know really what it is."

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"He classified it the difference between, a fall in crime and a reduction in crime. I quite enjoyed your show, by the way, which it completely took you off guard when he said states of emergencies become necessary at times. I haven't heard you repeat that part, for obvious reasons. But Jules, the deportation of certain individuals into a climate which I consider to be relatively peaceful, I'm not going to say completely peaceful. Thanks to the Leadership Intervention Unit, Brother Nuri, Footy, of course, the Commissioner of Police, in terms of the gang situation, and obviously drugs, firearms, fuel the gang and turf wars specifically in Belize City. And so inserting these deportees into that environment, we are going to have to be extremely, mindful of this move. Obviously the police is going to be ready because we do not want them to, disrupt or interrupt the progress that we've made, over the last few years."

After Accident, Scorpion Being Sought For Questioning

Yesterday a woman in Belmopan accidentally knocked down a man on a motorcycle. When the police arrived on scene, she had to explain to them that the reason she hit him was because she was stung by a scorpion that was inside her vehicle and lost control. That led the public to ask the big question: will the scorpion be charged?

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I must report that the scorpion is in custody at this time."

Reporter:
"But the lady, what happened to her?"

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Really and truly, it is going to be difficult to even prosecute her because they have to look at what the effects of that scorpion bite could have done to her so what we will do is that we will send that file to the DPP and allow the DPP to make the determination on that."