A gun was drawn on a student at the North Georgetown Secondary School, leading outraged parents to pull their children from classes until security is improved.
The chilling incident has terrified both the student body and teachers, and the Parent/Teachers Association (PTA) yesterday decided to stage a protest in order to force action to address the gaps in security at the school.
An altercation that began on the school’s basketball court a week ago escalated when three young men (including one in a uniform for a technical/vocational institution) entered the compound on Wednesday. It was 10:30 am and they claimed to be in search of a second form student. They did not find him but they pulled a gun on another student in the presence of others. A report of the incident quickly reached the school head, the police were called in and the men were arrested. A chopper and a toy gun were among the items that were found in their possession.
The trio was subsequently released on station bail the same day and threats have since been issued to a senior teacher and students who gave statements to the police. “I am scared to death,” one teacher said yesterday, after an emergency PTA meeting was held at the school. “I wonder if I have to come with a bullet- proof vest when I come to the class,” she added.
Rev. Alphonso Porter, who is a treasurer of the PTA, said that everyone was traumatised in the wake of the ordeal, especially since there had been the reports of threats being made against a teacher and the students. He noted that the men entered the compound through a gap in the eastern fence and both teachers and students are afraid to attend classes in the nearby wings. “Teachers are scared to come this side,” he said, waving his arm in the direction of the first-year classes. “Our children are being left exposed! We are very troubled [because] our children are at risk [and] we are not playing with our children.” Porter said the PTA planned to bring the situation at the school to national attention and the decision was taken to keep students at home until satisfactory security is in place. “The fact is that unless you protest nothing will take place,” Porter explained. Protest action was recently taken by the PTA of the St. Gabriel’s Primary School in order to secure beefed up security after a young man with a cutlass stormed into the compound and slightly injured a student.
Many parents present yesterday were angry when they learned that the three boys were released by the police. They said they should have been charged. Among them was the father of the 15-year-old boy for whom the trio was searching. He said he was told that the incident had its genesis in a fight that took place on the school’s basketball court a week ago. On Monday, he said, two of the three young men returned to the school and assaulted a boy. He said it was at that point that his son made a comment to the effect that he could have beaten the boy. Word of what the young man said reached the trio and after he was identified to them they searched for him. However, he was not at school at the time. The students identified the gun that the young men had as a .38 revolver. They also said the gun was stashed before the police arrived and only the toy gun was recovered during the search of their persons.
End of term examinations are scheduled to begin next week while Fifth Form students are in the final stages of preparations for the upcoming CSEC examinations. Staff members said that arrangements would be worked out to ensure that the CSEC candidates are not affected by the situation.
There are large gaps in the chain-link fence on the eastern side of the school compound, while the rusting western side is missing a large section. A senior member of staff said that the school has been lobbying to get improvements for years but nothing has been done and elements continue to use the breaches.
One teacher said that the gunplay was just the latest incident at the school. She recalled that during the previous school term there was an altercation and “crews” of students from nearby Richard Ishmael and the Georgetown Technical Institute (GTI) turned up at the school with cutlasses. More recently, a few weeks ago a group of young men armed with hockey sticks attacked a vendor in the school compound.
Many of the parents who attended yesterday’s PTA agreed that something must be done quickly. “What we need is the Ministry [of Education] to see if it can get more security for our children,” said Beverly Henry, whose 13-year-old daughter attends the school. “Right now anybody can get access and people are coming in with guns and we don’t need that. It could have been my child,” another parent said. “It is not safe if strangers can just walk in and the children and teachers are at risk,” added Yvette Luke, who has a niece attending the school.