PLANS to establish ‘safe zones’ around some schools are yet to be completed more than a year after grand announcements by officials from the security and education ministries.

The plan, which should have seen pilot programmes operating in several Corporate Area schools, including the violence-plagued Kingston Technical High School, Kingston College and St George’s College, at the end of last year, was proposed as an extension of the Safe School Programme (SSP) that is currently operating in over 100 high schools across the island.

However, last week a member of the Safe School Taskforce, that was charged with overseeing the SSP, confirmed that those plans are nowhere near completion.

“That! That plan is still in its embryonic stage,” the Observer was told.

But concerned over recent outbreaks of violence in some schools, former SSP coordinator Superintendent Norman Heywood called for the process to be fast-tracked.

“The schools are little replicas of the wider society,” he told the Observer. “[And] if the society is getting violent it will be reflected in the schools..”

He said also that trespassing on a school compound by “outsiders” should be an arrestable offence for which a hefty fine is imposed, and that persons caught with ganja in the safe zones should be fined $1,000 instead of the current fine of $100.

“There are a lot of things that the government could implement to make school zones safer. But it takes the will to be done,” Heywood added.

Meanwhile, Lt Col Oral Khan, who chairs the SSP, assured that the plan was not abandoned. He said the group is in the process of seeking “legal advice on the legislative changes necessary for the implementation of the zones”.

A pilot programme, he said, could be implemented as early as September for the start of the new school year.

The main part of the plan would see criminal offences committed within the zones attracting stiffer penalties than if committed elsewhere. The expectation is that crimes around school zones would be reduced, resulting in a reduction of criminal offences on actual school compounds thus creating the “ideal environment” for learning.