PORT AU PRINCE – Two secondary school students are due to appear before the investigating judge, Fritzner Duclair, on Monday even as the President of the Petit-Goave Bar Association, Alcide Laguerre, called for the arrest of all the students who participated in the vandalism acts at the premises of the Palace of Justice and Procuratorate of Petit-Goâve earlier this month.
The students were protesting the lack of classes at the Faustin Soulouque High School of Petit-Goâve due to the strike by teachers who themselves had gone on strike demanding their appointments and payment of salary arrears.
The students on March 13 broke into the premises of the Prosecutor’s Office and the Court of First Instance (TPI), breaking the windows, air conditioners, damaging the doors, burning the flag.
They later went on a rampage of violence, throwing out documents, threatening lawyers and other court officials who were forced to leave the building for their safety.
The students were reported to have been organised into two groups, with one group breaking everything in its path while the other threw stones and burnt documents from the Public Prosecutor’s Office on the streets.
Laguerre said that his association remains firm that all the students who participated in the acts of vandalism be arrested, dismissing the argument that “we cannot apprehend the students”.
He wants the names of the school students to be published and sent to the various faculties of the State University of Haiti preventing them from taking part in the entrance examination. He is also calling on the authorities to compensate lawyers for the damages.
The police have since forbidden high school students from demonstrating on the streets with masks, hood or scarf covering their faces, noting that they could demonstrate, peacefully. (CMC)