Views mixed on whether teachers should be armed
Published:Wednesday | April 20, 2022 | 12:05 AMLeon Jackson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
AMID THE recent spate of stabbing incidents at schools, there are mixed views among educators that permission should be granted for teachers to arm themselves while carrying out their duties on school premises.
Among those who believe that teachers should not be armed is Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President Winston Smith, who recently expressed the view that students are arriving at school with “weapons of mass destruction”.
Speaking with The Gleaner, Smith said, “Students are coming to school heavily armed with social weapons. Not the illegal ones, such as the guns, but weapons of mass destruction. Any weapon that can take a human life must be regarded as mass.”
Smith expressed, however, that the JTA would not support teachers being armed.
“I would not go down that way. What is needed is for parents to keep check of their children, inculcate in them good social habits and the sanctity of life,” said Smith.
President of Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools, Linvern Wright, supports Smith’s view.
“What is needed is a ramping up of security within our schools. Separate from the installation of cameras and searches at the gate, there should be random searches. Students will always find innovative ways to conceal weapons. In addition to this, there should be adequate supervision any time students gather in large numbers.”
Also in support of that position is Baptist pastor, Reverend Owen Watson.
“I am aware that students take weapons to school, but they are not attacking teachers. To have teachers being armed could result in a lot of killing. A teacher who feels threatened may respond violently,” the clergyman related.
In a 2017 Letter to the Editor, the writer expressed the view that if the teacher qualified to be issued with gun licence, then he or she should be allowed to take a firearm to work.
A bulletin in 2017 from then Chief Education Officer Grace McLean stated: “Firearms are to be concealed at all times and should not be exposed or in the visibility of the student body at large.”
Nadeen Malloy, a past president and trustee of the JTA, who is also the principal of Ardenne High School, with 2,000 students enrolled, believes there should be increased child support.
“I would not comment on what the president said. I would, however, say that there needs to be a greater involvement in the lives of their children.”
In recent times, there have been stabbing incidents at five high schools. Two teenagers have died as a result of being stabbed.
On the evidence that children are taking weapons to school, one primary-school principal, while requesting anonymity, was quite clear that teachers should be armed.
“I have been attacked at school by a parent. That parent blamed me for an incident in which the child died. Even now, I am being abused verbally when that parent sees me on the street,” the principal said. “I am aware that a student was prepared to fight a teacher who wanted to seize his guard ring.”