Wednesday, November 22, 2006 Bees suspend classes in Chinese school By Nicolas C. Delfin
BEES swarmed the Trinity Christian School compound in Villa Angela Subdivision, Bacolod City causing the cancellation of classes Tuesday.
The bees were discovered swarming the whole basketball court area of the school the night before, prompting the school administration to suspend all elementary and high school classes.
School Principal Esther Jane Uy, in an interview with Sun.Star on Tuesday, said that she decided to suspend all classes after seeing the swarm of honeybees settling inside the school classrooms and in the mahogany trees inside the school compound.
Uy said, that at about 10 p.m., she went back to the school compound after the school maintenance head called her up and informed that bees were already growing in number.
“The bees dimmed our school lights that night. Later, I called on all the school teachers and informed them that classes will be cancelled temporarily as we get rid of the bees,” she said.
“Some suggested fogging to get rid of the honeybees because it is really dangerous for the whole school community. We can’t afford to have any of students hurt. We do not want that to happen,” she said.
Later in the morning, the school maintenance department conducted the fogging as students who went to attend their classes were advised to go home.
Although the bees were contained after the fogging operation, the school authorities decided to suspend classes for another day.
It is not very clear as to where the bees came from but school guard Victor Hontiveros said some students have alerted him of the huge number of bees trying to settle at the mahogany trees near the basketball court area.
“I was patrolling the school premises at about 6 p.m. when I discovered that the bees were already growing in number,” he said.
“I even failed to switch on some of the school lights and lamp posts near the basketball court and in the school building because some of them were already attacking me,” he added.
Uy, on the other hand, said that the wild bees habitat might have been destroyed prompting them to look for another place to settle or that they were just looking for enough resources in order for them to survived.
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