This Monday, the Ministry of Education expressed concern about the recurring poisonings of students, teachers and administrative staff in public schools near agricultural plantations and asked the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the incident.
Likewise, he asked the Ministry of Agriculture to regulate the correct use of pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and other chemical products that endanger the health of schoolchildren.
In a press release, he warned that he will bring to justice companies and people who cause damage to educational centers by applying substances harmful to health to their plantations, in the surroundings of school campuses.
The institution reacted after, last week, 3 students and 6 teachers from the Centro Educativo José Ignacio Mendoza Reyes and Jardín De Las Mariposas schools, in the Palmar Arriba community in Villa González, Santiago province, were transferred to a health center poisoned with pesticides.
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A similar situation recently affected part of the staff of the Professor Juan Emilio Bosch Gavino Educational Center, belonging to the educational district 07-05 of San Francisco de Macorís.
In September of this year, 10 people, including students and teachers, were poisoned at the basic school, Santa Ana, in the municipality of Padre Las Casas, Azua.
Another case of poisoning of students and teachers occurred at the Max Henríquez Ureña educational center, in the municipal district of Cenoví, Duarte province, where 22 students and five teachers were affected.
Regional acts
As a result of that incident, the regional director of Education In San Francisco de Macorís, María Guadalupe Bruno Paula, asked the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office in that province to investigate the incident that she considered dangerous for the educational community.
Education admitted that it has no power to regulate or establish sanctions on the negligent or reckless use of pesticides.
However, he declared that he has the right to sue those companies or individuals that threaten the preservation of a healthy environment for students, teachers and other actors in the educational community.
At the beginning of this year, the Ministry sued the companies Estación de Fumigación Aerial Angelina and Aeroserva Servicios del Valle, for carrying out aerial fumigation with pesticides without observing the corresponding protocols in the school environment.
