
Teachers at a school in Glasgow have spoken about their horror after raising concerns may have been brought back to their homes. The worst school affected was St Brides Primary School in Strathbungo, which had to call out a pest control team five times due to their established bed bug infestation. In addition, since 2015 three reports of cockroach infestation were made at the primary school. Staff at the school were aware of the bed bug issue in early 2018 and the parents were notified by way of letter. Liaison meetings with the students’ parents were held by the school and council staff with help being offered and parents being directed to external companies to offer support.
Speaking anonymously, one member of staff said "The building is riddled, you can see it everywhere. The building has been fumigated but it is the fact that they have returned that worries us, that was supposed to be the end of it. It scares the death out of me, I don't want to bring them home. A lot of the staff are young and with kids and bed bugs aren't very nice. Things are getting worse with the bugs and none of us wants to be there at the moment. You should be able to go to work without worrying about this. In this day and age it is almost unbelievable." Susan Quinn, EIS Glasgow secretary, said: "Clearly, the health and welfare of pupils and staff must be paramount in schools at all times. In the rare instances where there is a risk of this type of infestation, school management must take an appropriate and proportionate response to mitigate that risk. It is also essential that the matter is dealt with sensitively, with appropriate understanding and support for any pupils who may have been affected."
Other schools in the area have had issues with both bed bugs and cockroaches and the local authority had also faced seven different complaints about bed bugs in school.