Schools fine-tuning plans to keep violence at bay

WESTERN BUREAU:

As the new academic year approaches, some western institutions rocked by violence in the last school term are taking steps to prevent any recurrence this year.

Among these schools are the Trelawny-based William Knibb Memorial High School and Muschett High School, along with the Westmoreland-based Petersfield High School, all of which came to national attention after widely circulated videos of violent clashes.

Linvern Wright, principal of William Knibb Memorial High, said that among the strategies to be implemented at the Martha Brae-based school are roving surveillance across the compound by teachers and a meeting with parents on discipline.

“We have gotten some metal detectors and we had some already. So now we have about seven metal detectors at the school. Our intention is to use them at the school gate and to have a roaming arrangement where, throughout the day, we check on students randomly,” said Wright, whose school was shaken by a deadly student stabbing incident in March.

“... Instead of having teachers stationed in one place, we have the teachers stationed around the school,” he added, noting that this will allow for greater supervision at all times throughout the day.

Leighton Johnson, headmaster at Muschett High, said that a zero-tolerance policy is being enforced concerning the possession of weapons on the premises of the Wakefield-based school.

On February 7, a female Muschett student was stabbed with a knife by another student.

Johnson said that students have been notified that, once they are found with an offensive weapon – such as a knife, an ice pick, or a sharpened implement – this would become a matter for the school board to address.

“We will be promoting and highlighting positive behaviours, and we will be demonstrating to students what they are expected to do. We will have a robust re-culturing of our students, heavily promoting our school rules through the modification of our student handbook, and we are going to be utilising our students’ council to promote the kind of behaviours that we desire of our students here at Muschett,” he added.

For Junior Clarke, dean of discipline at Petersfield High, where a 15-year-old female student was stabbed during a fight with another student in March, one of the mitigation strategies is to tackle the root of conflicts by dealing with parental influences.

“What the Office of the Dean of Discipline will be enhancing is its parents’ conferences and workshops, as many of the incidents are a direct result of improper parenting and societal influences. We plan on engaging the communities where these students are from, with the aim of having these discussions on how community conflicts impact the education of these children and try to get parents on board to support the school’s programme,” said Clarke.

“The school’s Male High Achievers Club will be utilised to help high-performing males, while the Most Valuable Person Mentorship Programme will be used as a strategy to engage our students with positive community influencers and mentors,” he added.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com