Health Department shuts down canteen at Cornwall College

The St James Health Department has ordered the immediate closure of the canteen at Cornwall College because of health-related 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, the head the St James Public Health Services, told The STAR shortly before mid-day today.

Wallace said the management of the school is fully aware of what needs to be done to rectify the situation, and the health department stands ready to further guide them through the process.

"We stand ready to work with them [school's administrators] because we understand the importance of having the boys in school and not having their education disrupted," continued Wallace.

"If the situation is rectified today, we stand ready to give them the greenlight to re-open the canteen tomorrow," he added.

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 STAR that the decision to suspend face-to-face classes was not a part of the directive from the health department, but because of the dislocation caused by the closure of the canteen, this decision was taken by the school's administration.

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

- Adrian Frater

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