By Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
Police Constables Howard Vassel (left) and Tyrone Erskin, speaking yesterday with Dennis Kelly (right), Principal of Charlie Smith High School, Ninth Street, Kingston 12, and students, during a routine check by the police at the school yesterday. - Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer
SCHOOLS IN several inner-city communities in the troubled South St. Andrew constituency re-opened yesterday with the principals of three reporting 80 per cent turnouts.
The schools were closed for at least three days last week, following an upsurge of gun violence between rival factions.
Yesterday, however, the streets were again buzzing with normal activities as police patrols made their rounds. The gates of the schools were kept closed and heavily guarded.
Speaking with The Gleaner, Grace Smith, principal of Trench Town High, said she believed that some students had stayed away because their parents were adopting a wait-and-see approach before sending them back to school.
"Yesterday morning, just as the students were coming to school, we heard some gunshots nearby. Right away a number of parents began to call to find out what was happening," Ms. Smith said.
Checks by The Gleaner revealed that the gunshots were fired during a confrontation between the police and a man they said they had held with an illegal 9mm pistol. The gunman was taken into custody and charged.
This was the second illegal gun found by the police in that community in less than 24 hours. On Sunday, four persons were taken into custody in connection with an illegal gun which the police said was found in a section of the community known as 'Havana'.
Dennis Kelly, principal of Charlie Smith High, described the presence of the security forces as comforting. "The students came back in high spirits," said the 49-year-old school principal.
With 28 years' service in the classroom, Mr. Kelly said that he went from "class to class" yesterday and counselled the students, some of whom were still traumatised by the shootings last week.
"I would say about 70 per cent of those preparing for the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) came out," Mr. Kelly said.
Heavily armed members of the security forces were on duty outside the gates and on the compound of some of the schools. Mobile units patrolled the streets in and around the schools.
"I am satisfied with the level of security that I saw," said Marjorie Hutchinson, principal of Jones Town Primary School. "When I came here this morning I saw a lot of police and soldiers. One of them came and told me that they would be around during the school hours," she said.
According to her, in the 33 years that she had been at Jones Town Primary, it was "the first time that gun violence had forced the school to close."
