Who is popular today?

Regine Phillip, the mother of the two-year-old boy who drowned at a school on Tuesday, had a premonition that something was about to happen but could not put her finger on it.
In hindsight, the 26-year-old grieving mother said she should have followed her mind and kept him away from classes. But, not wanting Romelu Drakes, fondly called Melu, to miss school, she sent him.
"That entire morning, I was feeling really uneasy. I did not feel like sending him to school. On my way to work, I kept feeling that something is going to happen. I was feeling heavy," Phillip said in a phone interview on Thursday.
She lives in Balmain, Couva and works as a cashier at a car firm in San Fernando.
Romelu would have turned three on April 23.
"In this case, I cannot say that everything happens for a reason. My son was healthy. He had no medical issues. I cannot see any other reason for this happening but negligence."
Around midday on Tuesday, the staff at a speech-therapy school in Esperanza Village, Couva, reportedly found Romelu motionless and floating in an above-ground pool, which has a ladder, in the yard.
He was taken to the Couva district health facility where doctors declared him dead.
Phillip said Romelu had a speech-delay problem, and a private doctor recommended a licensed speech therapist. Romelu started receiving therapy about eight months ago, initially for one hour per session in an adult's presence.
Last year, owing to the pandemic, class times were decreased and eventually stopped. In January, classes resumed. Since then, Romelu had been attending three days per week on the advice of a school staff member.
"This year she decided to have class-like settings for the three days from 9 am-12 noon. She said she was preparing him for preschool, and his speech was improving," Phillip said.
"She is a good person, and I trusted her with my child. She never made me think otherwise of her.
"I was very shocked to hear about the pool. Up to this day, we are trying to figure out the purpose of the pool."
Phillip said the family did not know the pool was on the school's grounds. It is not visible from the front gate.
"We are hearing that they (officials) were using a piece of ply to block the pool, but Melu got past it. I do not know how he recognised it was a swimming pool, seeing it was taller than him.
"If the ladder was not down, he would not have been able to get into it. He could not swim, but loved to climb. He loved the water."
Like the infant’s father, Shion Drakes, 31, she called for answers. The couple has no other children.
An autopsy on Romelu's body is scheduled for Friday at the San Fernando General Hospital.
Central Division police are investigating.
Ministry: School not registered
To prevent the spread of the covid19 virus, the Ministry of Education shut down schools nationwide in March last year. Last month, only primary and secondary students preparing for exams were allowed to be physically present at school.
From what the family was told, the establishment had 15 or more children.
"We did not know she had so many other children."
Newsday contacted the Education Ministry on whether the school had permission to be open, given the covid19 public health regulations, and was told the business is not registered with the ministry.
An official reiterated that the public health regulations apply to every citizen of the country, and redirected all questions to the school/ business and its staff.
Newsday also contacted Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh, who said he intends to raise questions in Parliament on whether the school is registered with the ministry
"If it is not, then we need to step up the game in terms of registration of schools," Indarsingh said.
He described the incident as tragic, saying it is unacceptable that some organisations are not adhering to occupational, health and safety measures.
He said he did not know the person running the school, and considering, from what he was told, they were "outsiders."
The post Distraught mother cites negligence in toddler’s drowning at Couva school appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.