OFFICIALS at the Tarrant Comprehensive High School in Kingston will next week host the first in a series of parenting seminars in an attempt to help curb the violence among students.

The decision came amidst increased incidents of violence on the school grounds, the two most recent of which saw a 15-year-old student and a man being murdered outside the school gate, and another student being stabbed on the compound a day before the school closed for summer holidays in July.

Gary Pierce, 15, was attacked and shot by teenagers dressed in black outside the school who later turned their guns on 30-year-old Donnavan McLean after he begged for Gary’s life. A student of the Haile Selassie Comprehensive High School was also stabbed shortly after the incident on the compound.

On Wednesday Steven Simpson, one of the two guidance counsellors at the school, declined to give the details about the seminar but said preparations were being made for the seminar.

“I would have to check with the principal before I can give any further details of the programme, but we want to start sometime next week,” Simpson said.

Simpson, in a statement to the Observer earlier this year, said that poor parenting was one of the main factors contributing to the violent and anti-social behaviour among students at the school.

He said that if parents were trained on how to effectively deal with their children, the school would be one step closer to stemming the violence among its students.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) George Quallo, said after the incident that the police would increase their presence at the school, adding that there have been frequent police patrols in the area since the start of the new school year on Monday.

“School began on Monday and as the principal can say, the police were in attendance at the opening and we will be maintaining a presence there,” George Quallo told the Observer.