Calls for police patrol outside Mt. Hope Sec. following killing | Print |
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Written by Rohandra John—Feb 9, 2010   

There is a need for police patrols around the perimeters of Mt Hope Secondary to monitor students after they are dismissed from school.

This was the general consensus among students and concerned guardians, following the stabbing which claimed the life of 17-year-old Jervon Douglas, yesterday evening.

The incident occurred along the Eastern Main Road in Mt. Hope near American Stores which is within walking distance from the school.

Douglas, a former student of the school, reportedly got into a fight with a third-former from Mt Hope Secondary and was stabbed during the melee. He later succumbed to his injuries at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt. Hope.

A third-former who did not wish to give his name said he knew Douglas and was saddened by his death.

“That was my real brethren. It sad though that he died like that,” he lamented during a brief interview with The Student Press.

Security was tightened at the school today as students were searched before they entered the compound. Before the killing, students said security searches were not done on an regular basis.

“They don’t search us every day but they started back searching today,” one second-former said.

The 14-year-old student also said that she would like to see police patrolling along Gordon Street where the school is located and also along the Eastern Main road because she said students often get into fights once they leave the school compound.

Her sentiments were echoed by a number of her classmates.

One concerned guardian, Gloria Joseph, whose granddaughter attends the school, said police officers should be assigned to patrol the area and should monitor students to ensure that they board maxis taxis after school is dismissed.

“They should get police to come and patrol here to monitor the students when they leave school. Is right up the road near to Mt. Dor Road that the stabbing took place … children nowadays ain’t care no matter what you tell them whatever they set in their mind they will do, so they have to have police around,” Joseph said.

A vendor who has been selling outside the school for several years said a police patrol is needed because a number of fights happen after school is dismissed. She said the school’s security can only control what happens at the school.

“There is only so much they can do, after the children are dismissed they have no control over them, they can’t chaperone the students. The police can help monitor them and even get rid of the loiterers who come around. They should patrol this area after school,” she said.

When The Student Press spoke to an officer at the St Joseph Police station he said investigations were still being conducted into the matter and charges had not been laid.

In a separate incident, two students were reportedly chopped by a mentally-ill teenager while they awaited transportation to go to school at the Williamsville Junction around seven this morning.

The two students, a 15-year-old female who attends Marabella North Secondary and a 12-year-old male, who attends Gasparillo Composite, were rushed to the hospital where they underwent emergency surgery.

The 12-year-old received a chop wound to his ear and is warded at the San Fernando General Hospital in stable condition while the female student, was reportedly chopped three times in the head and is said to be in a critical condition at the Port-of Spain General Hospital.

Police have since detained a suspect.

 

 

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the problems are systemic
written by Sookradge , February 09, 2010

For years, there have been serious problems of indiscipline and under-acheivement in most of the secondary schools. Recently, some of the acts of indiscipline have become much more serious and deadly. This trend will continue. The fact that the problems exist throughout the system suggest that there are fundamental design problems with the way these schools are organized.

Some of these causal factors are.

1. Rapid expansion in schools and school places with little or no development of a school transportation system. The result has been that undesirable and toxic maxis and PH cars have filled the vacum and both have undue negative influence on student development. Notice that in most developed countries, the school buses provided are manned by retirees who generally have no interest in corrupting young minds.

2. The policy of the MOE to retroactively train teachers, after they have been on the job for a number of years, and by that time, have already been entrenched in all the inefficient and ineffective norms of the schools. This negates the positive effect of teacher training and when such teachers re-enter the schools, it is almost impossible to incorporate new insights into these runaway schools.

3. Ineffective motivational arrangements for teachers. What's the sense for a teacher to work hard and to go beyond the call of duty when wotless co-workers are given the same increments and promotions at the end of the day. There are no effective rewards for excellence coupled with no punishment for errant teachers.

4. A grossly flawed concept of what teaching and education are all about. Most teachers see themselves as teachers of subjects. Few see themselves as teachers of young adults. The irony of this is that the teachers also are victims.

5. Ineffective administrative systems in schools. Poor principals....just to get the info on who came to school, who left early, what was taught in class, etc.....even if the info is obtained...what are they going to do with it? Become a hated and unpopular principal when your fellow principal who does not care and runs away, turns a blind eye etc, is loved by his/her staff.

I could go on and on. The point is that police patrols, metal detectors, 10 ft. walls topped with razor wire etc are mere bandages for a deeply rooted cancer. More sores will break out.

As one put it so comprehensively the other day when commenting on the el do wall..."if one school wall could solve all the problems in the schools, what a great wall that would be!"

Spaddus martinez Sookradge.



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