Champs clampdown

THE police yesterday banned all marches, motorcades and fetes associated with next week's Boys' and Girls' Athletics Championships (Champs), the annual four-day track and field event that determines high school supremacy in the sport but which, in recent years, has been the source of violent clashes among boys from rival schools.

Speaking with reporters following a meeting with high school principals and other Corporate Area and St Catherine school representatives at the Police Officers' Club in St Andrew, head of operations for the constabulary, Assistant Commissioner Glenmore Hinds, said the security forces would be pulling out all the stops to ensure that law and order are maintained.

"We have banned all post- and pre-champs fetes, as also marches and motorcades and this is to ensure that we reduce any incidents of violence," Hinds said. "We will also be deploying additional personnel in the transportation centres along the routes to the [National] Stadium in most directions."

Some of the areas which will be heavily policed include Cross Roads leading to Tom Redcam Drive to include South Camp Road; Arthur Wint Drive to the National Stadium; Stanton Terrace leading to Liguanea; Mountain View Avenue and Half-Way-Tree, Hinds said.

Police from the Community Safety and Security Branch, the arm of the constabulary with responsibility for deploying School Resource Officers in schools, are reporting an alarming spike in several criminal acts committed by students in the weeks leading up to the championships.

The crimes include possession of firearms and assorted ammunition, unlawful wounding, gang activity, possession of offensive weapons, possession of ganja and chillum pipes, extortion, child abuse, the use of indecent language, gambling and loitering before and after school.

The cops also say there is an increase in skin bleaching among students of both sexes.

In previous years, the police have reported recovering hundreds of offensive weapons from students and other patrons who attend Champs, and yesterday Hinds also warned that the police would be prosecuting anyone found with offensive weapons on the routes leading to and inside the National Stadium.

"We have an events plan which has been tried, tested, and proven and we will implement these plans. We have two command levels, at the stadium itself and police control," Hinds said.

Yesterday, principal of Kingston College Herbert Nelson admitted that some students get overzealous and may resort to violence as the four-day athletics championships draws nearer. He praised the police for implementing the security measures.

"I think they are very good security measures because of the nature of the championships," he said. "There is a situation where communities and boys in the schools are not only competing but are behaving violently. It has reached a state of sadness," Nelson said.

Students from Kingston College and their traditional rivals Calabar have a history of violent behaviour towards each other and according to Nelson, his counterpart from Calabar as well as other principals have been warning students to resist the temptation of resorting to violence.

Nelson also admitted that there was rivalry between students of Kingston College and the Holy Trinity High School but said the rivalry was more about a turf war and was not related to Champs.

Both schools are situated in Central Kingston.

The championships, set for March 24-27, mark their 100th anniversary this year and are scheduled to add a three-hour opening ceremony on March 23.

This week, the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association, which organises the games, said this year's staging would cost close to $40 million.

A total of 105 girls schools and 95 boys schools are registered to compete in the games regarded as the largest of its kind in the world.