Contributed
Tamain Beckford

Daraine Luton and Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporters

With violence disrupting activities in several schools across the island last year, at least one student body is calling on Government to spruce up security measures in secondary schools for the coming school year.

Tamain Beckford, president of the National Secondary Students Council (NSSC) said students must be protected while they are on school compounds.

"Our schools need proper and adequate security personnel and perimeter fencing to keep the students safe. It can't be the case that we put measures in place after something happens in a particular school," Beckford said.

"...We definitely need to see more security personnel placed on school grounds," he added.

Willing to play a part

Beckford said students are not opposed to playing a part in reducing the incidence of violence in schools. He said councillors from around the island have been trained in areas of conflict mediation and violence prevention, and they are willing to assist in the intervention process.

"I am not going to say there is going to be a dramatic decrease in violence in schools. However, I can say that our workshops are not talk shops."

Government announced this year that it was contemplating installing surveillance cameras in schools to identify intruders, but State Minister in the Ministry of Education and Youth, Senator Noel Monteith told The Sunday Gleaner that although the cost has already been ascertained, the system will not be realised this year.

"Security is a very important issue, but that is not where our priority is now. It is high on our agenda, but right now we are focused on ensuring that all schools are open when the new school year starts," he said.

An eruption of violence disrupted normalcy in several schools last year. Many of the incidents were gang-related, police reported.

Head of the Safe Schools Programme, Senior Superintendent of Police, Norman Haywood said last year alone as many as 10 school gangs were identified, many of them replicas of community gangs such as the One Order and Clansman gangs operating in Spanish Town, St. Catherine. Only three school-based gangs were dismantled.

Dismantling gangs

He said in September more emphasis would be put on dismantling remaining gangs. But the plans are intended to curb violence from the base, he explained, rather than implementing tight security measures.

"We will be putting in some early detection system for gang formation and to identify the students early going that direction, and try to introduce some form of behavioural change programmes to get them to conform to the norms of the school," Supt. Haywood reported.

At Brown's Town High School, where violence had reared its ugly head in the past, principal John Olson Feraria said the school will also rely on intervention programmes.

"We plan to increase intervention through our counselling department and through school leadership, and we have put up new mechanisms that once you have violated the rules then the penalty is going to be much greater," he said.