AL-RASS, 10 April 2005 — “Good morning!” was the greeting Arab News gave to a seven-year-old boy carrying his bag of books trying to catch up with his late class at Al-Shafei Primary School in Al-Rass Wednesday morning, just after the collapse of the most wanted terrorists late at night in the same area where this child is studying. He is just 13 minutes behind, and the morning ceremony is almost over. It was 7:13 a.m.
“Good morning!” The young boy replied. “Is there school today?”
“Yes, they say there is!”
The conversation was interrupted by the roar of a helicopter gunship circling around the sealed area where security forces fought a bloody battle against Al-Qaeda militants. The copter endlessly circled the area above the Al-Shafei Primary, which is situated very close to the battleground; its playground overlooks a vast area where police and vehicles stood guard. The child sneaked into the school running with his overloaded book bag on his young back, but there was no one to receive him at the school’s entrance.
“There is no doubt that children are the most affected by such events,” Mohammad Rashed Al-Gufaily, principal of Al-Shafei Primary School, told Arab News. “I asked my staff to give students the exact picture of these terrorists and the damage they caused us all.”
Sulaiman Al-Ayed, vice principal, said that half the student body was absent.
“We haven’t received any orders from the General Directorate of Education to close the school on Wednesday. We were closed only Monday and Tuesday,” Al-Ayed said.
As for the 25th Primary Girls School, which was very close to the terrorists’ hideout, it was a terrifying situation. The young girls, along with their women teachers, were evacuated Sunday night as the battle raged between special forces and terrorists. They had been at school since morning.
“The small girls thought of the operation as some persons hunting pigeons,” said Hanan Al-Sharikh, a woman teacher of the school. “It was too hard for both children and adults,” she said.
Minister of Education Dr. Abdullah Al-Obaid sent a letter of thanks to Norah Al-Gufaily, vice headmistress of the school, for her courageous acts to transfer all the school girls to the first floor away from the staccato report of machine guns and rumble of explosions, which commenced during the first class.
“We were called by police, who told us to calm down and not panic,” said Maryam Al-Nugair. “We told our girls it was only military training, and it would end shortly, but after hearing loud noises and gunfire, we asked the girls to read the Holy Qur’an and just wait.”
At 7 p.m., first the students and then faculty were evacuated. “It was a nightmare,” she said. All are thankful that the shrewd tactics of the special forces kept the innocents safe. “It could have been the same as the tragedy which took place at a Russian school,” said Mohammad Al-Gufaily, “but God saved us from that fate.”
