Bahrain parents want school reopened

The parents of students at the Bahrain American School have demanded that the school be reopened. It was closed for a week, ostensibly for security reasons.
According to sources, Principal Sandra Daniel informed the staff on October 23 that the school would be closed for a week starting from the following day.
The reason given was the U.S. State Department's advice to be on the highest state of alert in Bahrain and Qatar in view of the security threat to U.S. interests in the region due to the U.S. policy in the current Palestinian uprising.
According to Hassan Al Husseini, President of the school's Teachers and Students Association, most parents were caught unaware. Children came home and told their parents that there would be no school for a week. Some parents were informed by telephone, others were not.
Around 100 boarding students from Saudi Arabia were sent home with an hour's notice. Many parents from Saudi Arabia complained that they could not reach the school, and students who went to school on Tuesday were turned back.
"Most parents I spoke with wanted the school to reopen. They pointed out that students attending the American School in Saudi Arabia had continued their classes without any interruption. They also pointed out that they have not heard any American school in the region closing down for security reasons."
There are American schools in Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Oman, Cairo, Amman, Damascus and Beirut. None of them has been closed.
"Closing the school is harmful to Bahrain's economy," said Husseini, who pointed out that some parents were even talking of leaving Bahrain because the closing of the school, they feared, could last longer than one week.
Bahrain School is owned by the Bahrain government which leased it to the Bahrain International School Association, which in turn subleased the school to the Department of Defence Education Activity of the United States.
There are a total of 950 students from 35 nationalities and most of the teachers are American. The school has classes from kindergarten to grade 12 and teaches American syllabus.