THE TIVOLI Gardens High School in West Kingston has been receiving help following complaints that rats had invaded the school.
Officers from the Public Health Department spent last week's mid-term break setting baits and carrying out activities aimed at ridding the school of rats.
The Jamaica Labour Party spokesman on Local Government and Councillor for Tivoli Gardens, Senator Desmond McKenzie, last week expressed alarm that the school was being overrun by huge rats which, he said, came from the overgrown and dilapidated May Pen Cemetery nearby on Spanish Town Road.
However, the Public Health Department is dismissing claims by Senator McKenzie that the rats are coming from the cemetery.
"Rats coming from over there is a myth," said Dr. Herb Elliott, medical officer of Health for Kingston and St. Andrew. "What we are being told by the people is that mongoose comes from the cemetery," he said, adding that mongoose hunt and kill rats.
He said that the rats are attracted by food sources, which the school readily provides. "They have lots of garbage around here which is now being cleared out," he said.
Dr. Elliott was concerned that the school has ignored recommendations given to it a year ago to help stem the problem. Among these was a recommendation that the school put mesh around its kitchen. He said that Public Health Department would serve a notice on the school, if school officials did not follow the advice given to them over a year ago.
School officials were reluctant to talk with The Gleaner about the matter.
Senator McKenzie warned last week that the problem was threatening to spill over into the wider community, creating a major health hazard for the people of Tivoli Gardens and its environs.
He disclosed that the institutions woodwork centre was one of the sections of the school severely affected by the roaming rodents. In addition, he noted that the Principal of the school had raised concerns about the health factor.
Stressing that the May Pen Cemetery provided an unwanted breeding ground for the rodents, Senator McKenzie said that despite repeated undertakings, he has received from the Government agencies concerning bushing of the cemetery, the issue remained unresolved.
He noted that late last year he received promises that bushing of the cemetery would have commenced on January 6, more than a month ago.
Additionally, Senator Mckenzie said that he had received commitments from the Minister of Local Government, Portia Simpson Miller, as recent as two weeks ago to provide the necessary resources to deal with the problem, but nothing had happened.
