Dominican Republic’s ‘owners’ terrorize school children: Hoy

Boca Chica, Dominican Republic.- More than 50 children from a school were terrorized Tuesday by a mob of drivers who threatened to torch a bus headed to the Book Fair, claiming an exclusive contract with the school board.

Students and teachers from the Evangelical school at Andres, Boca Chica were subjected to anguish and despair when their bus was halted by drivers of the unions Sichoproboch and Asochombca.

The bus was intercepted by several drivers who forced students and teachers to dismount the vehicle 25 kilometers east of the capital on the from Las Americas highway, near the place known as El Peso.

Quoted by hoy.com.do, school secretary Ovni Perez said the drivers protested for not being hired to transport the students.

She said drivers blocked traffic by placing several buses right on the highway, “and aggressively threatened to break the windows and set fire to the bus if we didn’t step down.” she said that some of the children had to be taken to a clinic on nervousness.

Several Metropolitan Transit Authority (AMET) and National Police officers went to the scene, but the drivers ignored the order to move the buses.

"These men defied the authority because only moved the buses off the road when we decided to suspend the trip to the Book Fair," Perez said, and vowed to file charges against the drivers, dubbed ‘the country’s owners’ by local media.