Verging on three weeks after the police shooting to death of schoolboy Kelvin Fraser highlighted security concerns at the Patentia Secondary School, a guard is still to be provided.
Yesterday, parents told Stabroek News that despite the Ministry of Education promising that their concern would be addressed, the Ministry is still to make good on that promise. One parent said that a guard is provided in the afternoon, when classes are over, to secure the compound, but a Stabroek News reporter, who visited the school after hours was able to enter unhindered through the open gate. There was no sign of any guard.
On June 7, Kelvin, a fourth form student at the Patentia Secondary School, was fatally shot during what police said was a scuffle with a rank who was attempting to arrest him. However, two youths who were present at the scene have since told Stabroek News that they heard no sounds of a scuffle. Further, one youth said that Kelvin was complying with the order of the policeman, when he was shot at close range.
An autopsy found that the 16-year-old died of shock and haemorrhage from laceration of the lungs caused by gunshot injuries. The teenager was shot in the left side of his chest at close range and several pellets were retrieved from his body. The police had said ranks were responding to a report that a group of males were harassing girls at the school when Kelvin was shot.
Following the shooting, sources at the school told this newspaper that strangers enter the school’s compound at will promoting a gang culture and the police had been called to the school several times in the past to chase them away.
Despite appeals to the Ministry of Education to provide a security guard to man the gates, nothing has been done, they said. Had the calls been answered, the incidents that led up to the fatal shooting of Kelvin could have been avoided, the sources believe.
After the shooting, the Ministry had promised that a guard would be provided, this newspaper was told. But when contacted yesterday, parents and students said this was not done. “After what had happen, they should have take note and provide security,” Sharon Fraser, Kelvin’s mother said. Her daughter also attends the school.
Some students told this newspaper that they are fearful and pointed out that anyone can enter the compound. They said that anyone with malicious intentions can enter and do whatever they want. They said that a guard should be provided. “After what happen to Kelvin, they should have taken it serious,” Sharon said.
“They don’t take nothing serious. They just don’t care. They just don’t care,” she said adding it is back to “square one” at the school. Meanwhile, she said that the police have provided no update to her on the status of investigations into the killing of her only son.
On June 7, Fraser had left home to meet his girlfriend at the school, after receiving a call from her. He had not attended school that day and did not wear his uniform. After meeting her, he had planned to go to Georgetown to buy a birthday gift for her. He met her in a classroom.
At the time, there were four persons in the school, who were not students. They hung around at a stairway at the southern section of the school building and smoked what smelt like marijuana, according to sources at the school. “We does got to battle with this thing every day,” a source said.
This newspaper was told that the youths waited at the stairway for female students to pass and then grabbed at them.
That day the headmistress of the school called a community policing officer who in turn contacted the police after observing the actions of the four youths, who were not students. After the police turned up, Kelvin ran away after observing the police hitting the youths.
He was not a part of the gang. He was shot at the Patentia Housing Scheme.
This newspaper was told that “over and over” teachers have had cause to complain to the Ministry of Education and the police about strangers in the school.
Since the shooting of Fraser, the matter was raised with the Ministry but it was “promise as usual,” the sources said.