Petrina Francis, Education Reporter
FRUSTRATED STUDENTS at the Edith Dalton James High School in St. Andrew protested yesterday against a recent spate of robberies involving a teacher and students on the school grounds and in the community.
The placard-bearing students protested against the most recent incident where a teacher was held up by gunmen in a classroom and robbed of her jewellery. The men also took her car keys and escaped in her motor vehicle.
The car was later found as it had a tracking device.
FRUSTRATED
"We are tired of it," said Audrey Seivwright, vice-principal at the school. She noted that a past student was killed on the school grounds in May.
Ms. Seivwright noted that while the school is a part of the safe schools programme where police personnel are placed in schools to reduce the incidents of violence, it has not helped much because the policeman is not at the school everyday.
"It is not very effective because no one person can do it and as far as I can see, you need a team," she said.
The safe schools programme began in more than 60 schools across the island last September and involves a co-ordinated approach between several Government ministries, non-governmental agencies, and members of the private sector.
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture is in the process of reviewing the programme.
A meeting was held with the school administration and representatives of the ministry yesterday to address the problems being experienced by the school. Meanwhile, classes at the junior high section of the Braeton Primary and Junior High School in Portmore resumed yesterday following three days of boycott by teachers.
The teachers refused to teach and demanded that the acting principal suspend a group of boys who were involved in a fight.
Mark Jackson, a teacher at the school told The Gleaner that the boys returned to school yesterday and the principal allowed them to shake hands and sent them to class.
However, this did not go down well with the angry teachers who are threatening to boycott classes again today until appropriate action is taken against the boys.
