Santa Cruz , St Elizabeth — Principal of Holland Primary School, Simone Doctor is hoping the employment of a security guard supported by a guard dog to patrol the five-acre school grounds at night will make a difference.

Since last October the school — situated close to the famous Holland Bamboo attraction — has been broken into five times, with thieves making off with stored food and other valuables.

Although surveillance cameras and an alarm system were installed last November, there have been more breakings — on March 1 and again, late on the night of March 16.

Equally disheartening, the school’s award-winning vegetable garden — which is a source of pride since it helps children to develop basic farming skills, nurtures self-help attitudes and provides produce for the canteen — has been repeatedly plundered by thieves.

Even a shade house used as a bamboo nursery to help replenish the Holland Bamboo attraction was rendered useless when thieves took the plastic roofing.

The break-ins and thievery have cost heavily in material terms but even more so, it has damaged school and community morale, Doctor told Jamaica Observer Central last week.

“The frightening thing is that it (break-ins and thievery) has happened so often it’s like its being normalised… they (community and children) are no longer moved as they should be,” the school principal said.

She worries that plans to include Holland Primary in the Tablets in Schools Programme come September could be endangered because of the security situation.

“If the school is constantly being broken into who would want to send their tablets here?” she asked rhetorically. “If we are going to be part of the technology in schools programme and we can’t keep the technology safe it’s bad for the school, for the children and the entire community,” Doctor said.

Holland Primary has an official attendance of 260 children, mostly from Holland Village and surrounding communities including Middlesex, Middle Quarters, Lacovia and extending as far east as Santa Cruz.

Angry parents responded recently to the situation by demonstrating at the entrance to the school, urging police to “act” based on video footage of thieves wearing masks which were captured by surveillance cameras. It’s believed that based on the body shape shown up by surveillance pictures, at least one of the thieves may be a woman.

Last Thursday, Superintendent Catherine Lord, who heads the St Elizabeth police division, told Observer Central that investigations were at an “interesting” stage.

Doctor said she had told parents and community members that they should help the police by sharing whatever information they may have.

She said the criminal assault on Holland Primary was especially sad since the school has excelled over the years in academics as well as extra-curricular activities, winning numerous awards in sports, culture, gardening and environmental protection.

Doctor — who has been at Holland Primary for 22 years, first as a classroom teacher and for the last eight years as principal — told Observer Central that prior to last October, the last time there was a “major” break-in at the school was in 2012.

“They came twice in October… then they came in November again…,” she said. The November incident prompted assistance from Marva Christian of pharmaceutical and medical supplies distributor, Cari-Med Ltd.

A St Elizabeth native and past student of Holland Primary, Christian donated surveillance cameras and an alarm system linked to a Santa Cruz-based security company.

The installation of high-tech security devices left Doctor and her staff breathing easier and very confident that the Tablets in Schools programme would be safely executed.

“We were so happy; we felt we could leave the doors open,” a rueful Doctor recalled.

It was noticeable, however ,that there were several reports of the alarm system being triggered. Then, on March 1, staff arrived at school to discover the school’s office door open and items stolen. “I was amazed that we had cameras and alarm and my office door was open,” Doctor said.

Apparently suspecting that their own systems had broken down, the security company took “responsibility”, replaced stolen items and were conducting their own “internal investigations”, Doctor said.

But the trauma didn’t end there. At 2:00 am on March 17, Doctor was awakened by phone calls from the police and the security company that the school had again been broken into — hours earlier. This time security company personnel, responding to the alarm, arrived within three minutes. The thieves fled, escaping with just “seasoning and a bag of salt”, the school principal said.

Now, the Ministry of Education has assigned a security guard with a dog. “I met the dog and I am very happy,” Doctor said with a laugh.

She has plans for even greater security, with the building of a perimeter wall to the rear and sides of the school ground. The front facing Bamboo Avenue already has a chain-link fence. Plans to raise funds for the security wall are already in train, she said.

Doctor emphasised that with all the setbacks the school fraternity remained committed. “It has weakened our spirit a bit but we are trying not to be disheartened,” she said.