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Jules Vasquez reporting
Schools across the city were closed today - if they had shutters you would think it's a hurricane coming at this Catholic school, schoolyards, as barren as deserts, Queen Square Anglican seemed to have some activity but instead of opening doors, we saw them being closed most schools, though, looked like they hadn't been opened all day doors were closed too at St. John's Vianney.

But at Gwen Liz High, a Government school, it looked outwardly almost like business as usual.

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"I've heard some aspersions about you being here today with law enforcement officers as if you are here to intimidate and impose the will of the state. What really were you or are you doing here today?"

Roosevelt Blades, Chairman, Gwen Liz
"As the chairman of the school I am carrying what my responsibility is. As you know last week the ministry called all the stakeholders together and informed us about the strike. We were asked to put certain measures in place and so I came here this morning just to make sure that everything we had agreed on was in place. I don't know anything about any police officers, I came here alone. I saw one police officer here this morning and we did not make any arrangements for police officers to be here. I don't know how they were dispatched but I'm certainly sure that there were no 4 officers here when I was here."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"What sort of school day are you all having here today? Did any students show up? Did any teachers show up?"

Roosevelt Blades, Chairman - Gwen Liz
"Yes we have 98 students and 22 teachers."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"And how many do you normally have? Student and teachers."

Roosevelt Blades, Chairman - Gwen Liz
"The student population is 525."

At St. Martin De Porres - another Catholic managed school even the gate was locked the same just a block away at St. Luke's Methodist

We did see a police officer posted at every school and they were backed up by Patrol units and strike teams to make sure no one created mischief.

At St. Joseph the gate was open, but it looked like no one was at home.

We did see teaching happening at Grace Primary which is a not managed by either of the major denominations.

And our neighbors at Wesley Lower - where we saw two ministers prancing out of last week was closed today - with no students or teachers in sight. In fact, the place where we saw the greatest number of teachers this morning was in the KREMANDALA parking lot - They were there to support their president - who was on the WUB.

But the presence of four uniformed police officers forming a sort of loose apron on the sidewalk - made the teachers feel that it was a deliberate intimidation tactic - like they were being watched.

The officer commanding Southside swooped in to smooth the very ruffled feathers and using police diplomacy - in a pretty short time - he had the very agitated teachers calmed down though the teachers stressed how unwelcome it was.

But Williams smoothed it over with the district president and went to explain to the Union President. He explained to them that it was his decision to deploy the police out there:

ACP Chester Williams, Commander - Southside
"We have to protect the people here. There are people out there who may be against the agenda and might want to come and hinder them or stone them with things that may harm them. We must be proactive, we cannot wait for a call from him that something had occurred."

Geovannie Brackett, President - COLA
"When COLA comes out here and want to meet, COLA wants to have a private conversation with brother Luke and we feel intimidated. You all have equipment, GSU have equipment that could just listen to you from afar - that big van. They are monitoring our calls."

ACP Chester Williams, Commander - Southside
"That's not true."

"Like I have said to Mr. Luke and his teachers, the police are not out here to intimidate or disrupt the teachers in any way. We respect the work that teachers do in our country on a daily basis. We know that they will be on krem, we know that they will congregate out here on Partridge Street and so to be proactive I've sent 4 officers out her to ensure the safety of our teachers as they congregate to in any destination they choose to go to here on after. As it relates to those in the schools, there are still teachers who are at the schools teaching and we do not want anyone to go after them as well as they go about their daily business to do what they want to do. So we're just basically ensuring the safety of the teachers."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"Sir but you see how it can be interpreted as a sort of intimidation like 'okay you guys are making your statement, so will we'. On behalf of the state, do you see that?"

ACP Chester Williams, Commander - Southside
"Well I can understand the reason why the teachers may have felt that way and that's the reason why I came out to ensure I clear the air and let them understand the reason why we are here. The posting of the police officers out there has nothing to do with the government or the prime minister, I as commander of south side Belize City, took that initiative and put the police officers there to ensure the safety of our teachers."

Luke Palacio, President - BNTU
"I think all of us felt intimidated. If the police officers he had out here came up and said 'we've been asked to come out here for your protection', I think the reaction would have been different but they just stood guard as though saying 'hey we're out here to deal with you if anything happens' but not saying 'we are out here to protect you'. I agree with the sentiments being expressed, we are glad that the officer in charge, Officer Williams, has cleared the air to that extent and we trust that that will be the spirit going forward."