THE COMMITTEE of Principals and the Association of Principals and Vice-principals have condemned recent violent attacks on schools and teachers which resulted in students fleeing two schools in Kingston over the last week and another school in mourning.
Describing the attacks as deplorable, both organisations said they represented an attack on the very fabric of the nation.
The comments come in the wake of the murder of Keith Morris, principal of the Hartland All-Age School, St. Catherine, who was chased and shot by gunmen who entered a shop where Mr. Morris was watching a game of dominoes. Last Friday gunshots in Maverley, Kingston, and a death threat written on a school wall against Egbert Downs, Principal of Maverley Primary and Junior High School, led to the school being dismissed early. Some 400 students failed to show up for classes at the school on Monday.
On Tuesday, Gaynstead High in Kingston sent its students home for two days because of telephone callers who threatened gun violence against the school if a gun found on the compound and confiscated by police was not returned to them.
The associations were concerned also that the acts appeared to be becoming more frequent, increasingly vicious and represented almost a norm in behaviour for many Jamaicans.
"We note that some of these incidents occurred after principals took disciplinary action against students. We believe that a society that turns on itself is in danger of extinction (but) increasingly, we see the tendency for our people to rush to judgement and respond abusively and irrationally to many situations, all of which could be resolved in dialogue. It behoves us to learn how to contribute to peace through dialogue", they said in a statement yesterday.
Referring to cases where violence and reprisals were glorified and students taught that might was right and to disrespect authority, the associations urged "well-thinking Jamaicans to stand up...and assist us to try to teach the students in our care, a kinder, gentler way of life."
