Canteen at Cornwall College ordered closed by health department

The canteen at Cornwall College in Montego Bay, St James has been ordered closed by the St James Health Department over health concerns.

The directive was issued today and will remain in place until further notice.

“It gives us no pleasure to order the canteen closed but we basically had no choice …we were trying to work through the issues with the school but we were not getting anywhere with it,” Lennox Wallace, head of the St James Public Health Services, told The Gleaner shortly before midday Thursday.

Wallace said the management of the school is fully aware of what needs to be done to rectify the situation and that the health department continues to offer support.

“We stand ready to work with them because we understand the importance of having the boys in school and not having their education disrupted,” said Wallace.

“If the situation is rectified today, we stand ready to give them the greenlight to reopen the canteen tomorrow.”

Arising from the closure of the canteen, the school decided to send home students from face-to-face classes to online teaching.

A source close to the school told The Gleaner that the decision was made because of the dislocation caused by the closure of the canteen.

Efforts to get an official response from the school’s administration were unsuccessful as The Gleaner was told the administrators were locked in a meeting.

- Adrian Frater

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