Sixteen-year-old Jonylle Smith (third left) receives the Student of the Year award from principal of the Victor Dixon High School, Orchid Smith (second left), during the school's graduation exercises at the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) gymnatorium in Mandeville, Manchester, on Sunday. Completing the presentation are, from left, Dr Beverley Cameron, chairman of the board of the Victor Dixon High School; and Dr Sandra Gayle, education director of West Indies Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. - Photo by Nigel Coke

Port Antonio, Portland:

For the second straight day, classes were suspended at Happy Grove High School in Portland, as irate taxi and bus operators remounted roadblocks yesterday morning.

The second protest action came despite the National Works Agency's (NWA) assurance Monday that it would effect repairs to the main road leading from Folly in Port Antonio, extending to Hectors River, just on the border of Portland and St Thomas.

Yesterday, fearing for the safety of students and teachers, Happy Grove Principal Lauriston Lindsay, issued instructions for them to remain home for the day as tensions have been mounting among taxi and bus operators.

Lindsay also issued similar instructions on Monday for students and teachers to stay away from the various sites of protests and to return to their homes until calm was restored.

Yesterday, in continuing their protest over the deplorable road conditions, taxi and bus operators used boulders, drums, old cars and trees, which were cut down using a chainsaw, to block the roadway leading from Kensington into Hectors River.

The roadway was later cleared by the police. However, taxi operators plying the route from Flat Grass to St Thomas in the east, and down into Port Antonio, withdrew their services for a second day.

On Monday, the NWA said it would be rehabilitating 1.3 kilometres of roadway from Long Bay, along with patching work on 8,500 square metres of road, by the end of this week.

However, taxi and bus operators have insisted that they have been fed that information on numerous occasions and are, therefore, treating the latest statement from the NWA with disregard until the actual work has started.