And while Williams says the letter is the work of an idiot, the kids in remote San Benito Poite, Toledo will never match that descriptions.
Despite the ongoing BNTU strike, their school is open.
Our colleagues at PGTV and the BTV visited San Benito Poite and gave us an interesting slice of life, 50 miles away from PG Town, pressed up against the Guatemalan border. Courtney Menzies put together this story.
San Benito Poite is a village in Toledo so close to the Guatemalan border, that BDF soldiers can be seen patrolling near the border marker, seen here in this video.
The village has no access to cellphone signal, internet, nor electricity aside from the few solar panels. Their news is from Guatemala, and for those who have a phone, their signal is from Tigo.
But the school in this little village is one of many across the country that reopened its doors on May 10th. And like any other school, there are safety protocols in place, such as the social distance markers in these photos.
The administrator of the school explained that the kids, decked out in their blue uniforms, were more than ready to begin learning.
Domingo Teck, Administrator, San Benito Poite RC School
"I notice that the students are really excited, they were here bright and early, and they were here, they were ready, just that we are following the protocols of the COVID 19 and our school have a system of staggering time to begin classes."
Reporter:
"And how is that working?"
Domingo Teck
"It is working well, we begin different categories with different timings and it's working well."
But this reopening is happening in the midst of the BNTU's strike, and while the teachers at the school try to participate, Teck explained that they are mostly cut off from the rest of the country.
Domingo Teck, Administrator, San Benito Poite RC School
"The strike is one that we do participate in fully, we are members of the BNTU, we are financially members of the BNTU, we participated in demonstrations but one thing that we - that have us like this is the communication. We are really disconnected in knowing what is out there on land because everything is virtually now, San Benito Poite, is nowhere close to like with internet access, neither phone calls. We do participate when we know there is demonstration, and when there is strike to close down the schools, we participate in that, but since we already told the parents we will open May 10th, we just come to see how many students are coming and that is how we find out that most of them are ready, they wanted to start, but it's just that we cannot start if the teachers are not in here and those who are here, they did come to classes, and those who are not, I cannot really force them to be here and they have a right to what it means to take strike."
"I understand what is going on and really in our case, that is in what way - we are not fully engaged as per se regular session is happening, we just want to see how many students wants to be in school, we give them the regular work we are trying to give them and from there we see what is left."
And in this remote village, where natural beauty abounds, they may be off the grid, but the students want to be on the path to learning.
Out of the 8 teachers the school has, only 5 reported to work, while the other 3 are out on strike.
