Eleven-year-old Dee-O'neill Reid* was in her classroom at Christiana Moravian Primary and Infant School in Manchester, preparing for devotions, when a sudden barrage of gunfire shattered the calm. The deafening shots sent her and her grade six classmates scrambling to the floor in terror.

“I was shocked,” she recalled. “I was hoping that none of my friends and family members would get hurt.”

The gunmen had targeted Cuthbert 'Jerome' Lambert, the stepfather of one of Dee-O'neill's peers, killing him outside the school gate as he dropped his child off at school.

Although the tragic incident occurred two months ago, Principal Fitzroy Abbott told The Gleaner that the trauma is still fresh for staff and students at the institution.

“Normally, we see these things on television, hear about them on the radio, but then to see it unfold right in front of your eyes, it's very shocking. It's very alarming,” he said.

The shooting in Christiana is part of a growing trend of violent incidents on or near school compounds that have been causing alarm.

In December last year, a shootout ensued between gunmen and the police on the compound of the Gregory Park Primary School in St Catherine.

At the end of the frightening ordeal, one man lay dead, and terrified students and staff watched as police swarmed their school.

“It felt like a movie,” Principal Richard Williams said. “I was preparing to go to devotion and I heard the gunshots, and I was like, 'No, man. Dat sound close! When mi hear di shuffling and when mi open di door, children and teachers on dem chest, dem belly,” he told The Gleaner.

The increasing frequency of these violent attacks has raised concerns about their impact on children and the school environment. Education Minister Senator Dana Morris Dixon has condemned the attacks, emphasising the need for immediate action to protect students.

According to the Jamaica Constabulary Force, 13 shootings have taken place near or on school grounds between January 2020 and October 31, 2024, four of which occurred in 2024 alone. Last week's attacks bring this year's tally to at least six.

The violence escalated further last week when Holmwood Technical High bus driver Rohan Gentles was fatally shot while waiting to transport students of the Manchester-based school to a football match.

Earlier the same day, 36-year-old taxi driver Dashwan Newry was killed outside Rousseau Primary School in Kingston while dropping off a student. A month ago, gunmen killed 56-year-old Gary Lestie on the same compound when he arrived to pick up his child.

“If we are seeing this in the schools, it tells you that there is no respect for the institution,” Abbott, the Christiana Moravian Primary headmaster, reasoned.

FIRST EXPERIENCE

The principal of more than 10 years told The Gleaner the September 6 incident was his first experience of a shooting at school. It was also the first time that the school's lockdown security procedures had to be activated.

“Normally, we do our earthquake drills, our fire drills, but for something like this, it was the first time we had to implement our lockdown,” the principal said.

He fears that the violence plaguing society is infiltrating spaces once thought to be safe, leaving a trail of trauma in its wake.

Sijani Stewart*, an 11-year-old grade six student, shared her feelings of fear and sadness.

“I felt scared and sad,” she told The Gleaner. “A parent was shot, and that is very, very sad.”

Anita Anderson, the school's security officer, played a critical role in ensuring the students' safety during the attack.

Her quick action possibly saved the life of a student who was paralysed by fear outside the gate during the shooting.

Upon hearing the explosion, Anderson, who has been working at the school for 11 years, said she grabbed the student and ran for cover. Even now, she struggles with nightmares and fear of returning to work.

“[I'm] still remembering it sometimes. Even right now talking about it, maybe by later, I'll have a sleepless night, but at the same time, I am trying my best to get over it the best way I can,” she said.

Since the shooting, security at the school has been tightened. Visitors are now screened at the gate, and a more visible identification system has been implemented. Abbott also plans to introduce a school invasion policy to further prepare students for potential future incidents.

“We could also have a better security system, like making the school surrounding more enclosed – locked in [with] taller walls and bigger gates,” Dee-O'neill, who is also the head girl, suggested.

Gregory Park Primary's Williams is concerned about the psychological impact the killing on the school grounds will have on his students. He said it was not the first time gunmen had breached the school's eight-foot perimeter wall and perpetrated violence on the compound.

“One of the remarks by a student was, 'This happened when I was in grade one and now I am in grade six, it is happening again',” he said.

“They (students) were scared, because the person who got shot, it was a father for a child who attends the school and cousin for others, and they would have seen it,” he told The Gleaner.

PARENTS PULL CHILDREN

He said several of the 328 students enrolled at his school come from volatile areas and the school aims to offer them a protected environment.

“To leave their communities and come to school and experience the same thing, that is more traumatic than anything else,” Williams said, noting that some parents had moved their children to other schools after the latest shooting.

Since then, he has made requests to the Ministry of Education for funds to install razor wires on sections of the perimeter wall, closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV), and a sensory room for the Guidance Department to help students who are experiencing high levels of trauma.

While he hangs on to hope that these requests will be fulfilled, he said the Jamaica Constabulary Force's Community Safety and Security Branch has increased its presence at the school.

Teachers have also increased the number of educational activities to keep students occupied.

“We have a lot more activities to take their minds off those things,” Williams said. “We have [to] make sure that our teaching and learning activities are up … . We just have to keep them focused.”

Child psychologist Dr Orlean Brown-Earle believes this is a good strategy to help children cope with the emotional toll from violence occurring on school grounds.

She told The Gleaner that children who suffer this kind of trauma usually experience acute stress disorder, which can manifest in increased anxiety, negative moods, and even amnesia. This, she said, can lead to poor academic outcomes.

“Once these things happen, it's going to impact their working memory, their cognitive flexibility – how they think about things; it will make them difficult to concentrate. And what we find with some of them is that they end up doing mind-wandering, so something triggers the memory of it and they're just all over the place,” Brown-Earle said.

“Crime in Jamaica has no borders,” noted National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica President Stewart Jacobs as he expressed his revulsion with the growing number of violent attacks on or near school grounds.

“There was a time in our very culture where crime would not be anywhere close to a church or a school or municipal building. Now, there is no care; there is no regard,” he said.

He acknowledged that some concerned parents are withdrawing their children from schools affected by violence, further disrupting their education and placing a financial strain on families.

“Some parents have opted to band their bellies and squeeze tight to send their children to schools miles away in a more secure location. They have opted to send the child to board with relatives and friends at a school that is safer, and some of them go as far as to transfer their children to private school,” he told The Gleaner recently.

But this is not sustainable, he argued.

A better solution would be to increase police patrols around schools, particularly in volatile areas, he asserted.

A similar suggestion was made last week by Opposition Spokesman on Education Damion Crawford, who urged the Government to establish “safe spaces” around schools, which would mandate scheduled police patrols and ensure a consistent and visible law enforcement presence. He also suggested harsher penalties for crimes committed within school zones.

Richard Troupe, director of safety and security in the Ministry of Education, told The Gleaner that the ministry is finalising its safe schools policy but could not provide a timeline for its completion.

“What the safe schools policy will speak to is the need for a national coordination mechanism representing the key agencies, so we are holding each other accountable as to what are the deliverables under our portfolio responsibility to make our nation's children feel safe,” he said.

Troupe revealed that CCTV cameras were installed in 16 schools over the last two academic years, with eight more schools in line to benefit this academic year. So far, 20 high schools and two primary schools have been equipped with video surveillance systems at a cost of $45 million.

PUSH FOR CCTV

Former Education Minister Fayval Williams, who demitted office earlier this month, had committed to installing CCTV cameras in all public schools. Troupe said that process is under way.

Another ongoing project involves upgrading the infrastructure of several schools to install perimeter fencing.

“Back in the days, many schools, especially the rural schools, did not require that level of infrastructure support, but in the context of crime and violence, in the context of mental-health issues, there is a greater need for targeted attention to be placed in that area,” he told The Gleaner.

Efforts are also being made to strengthen the capacity of security personnel in our schools through targeted training, Troupe added.

These measures are part of a broader initiative to improve school security, but for Holmwood Technical High School, a unique challenge remains.

Clifford Reid, the chairman of the school, said for several years, they have been advocating for the public road running through the school grounds to be rerouted, cognisant of the potential danger it poses.

“It has to change. I do not see how we can properly secure our school with a public thoroughfare going through the school. I really hope out of this tragedy comes the kind of change that we hope to see,” he said.

*Interviewed with parental consent.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com

School shootings since Dec 2021 (based on media reports)

December 7, 2021: Chanel Smith, a teacher at the Sandy Bank Infant School in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth, was shot dead by gunmen as she entered the schoolyard.

January 29, 2021: Chadrie Dryden was chased through a school and killed by armed men in Westgate Hills, St James, after going to pick up his child.

November 11, 2021: School administrator at Excelsior Community College in St Andrew was shot by gunmen on the school grounds.

June 13, 2023: Taxi operator fatally shot outside Ascot Primary School in Portmore, St Catherine.

December 14, 2023: Fatal shooting at Gregory Park Primary School in St Catherine. Gunman shot dead by police.

March 27, 2024: Jamar Clark was shot dead by the police during a fun day at the Winston Jones High School.

March 27,2024: Fabian Needham, otherwise called 'Killy Killy', a pump attendant of Highgate, was killed by gunmen on the compound of St Mary High School. Four others, including a student, were injured in the incident.

May 15, 2024: Pembroke Hall Primary School security guard killed on St Andrew-based premises.

June 17, 2024: 14-year-old Ocho Rios High School, St Ann, male student reportedly shot a 12-year-old girl on the school compound. The students were allegedly playing with a gun which went off.

September 6, 2024: Cuthbert Lambert, otherwise called Jerome, was shot and killed near the gate of Christiana Moravian Primary and Infant School in Manchester.

October 14,2024: Gary 'Junior' Leslie (parent) was shot and killed by gunmen at the Rousseau Primary School in St Andrew.

November 15, 2024: Taxi operator Deshawn Newry was killed at the gate of Rousseau Primary School while dropping off a student.

November 15, 2024: Rohan Gentles, bus driver at Holmwood Technical High School, was shot and killed on the school grounds by gunmen.