CTOC at Godfrey Stewart High School in Westmoreland
WESTMORELAND, Jamaica – Members of the anti-gang unit at the Counter Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigations Branch (CTOC) are engaging students at the Godfrey Stewart High School in Westmoreland, as they try to provide intervention.
That is according to Head of the Westmoreland Police Division Senior Superintendent (SSP) Wayne Josephs.
SSP Josephs was speaking at the Grange Hill High School in the parish on Friday, where Deputy Prime Minister Dr Horace Chang was gifting musical and sports instruments to the institution.
“Right now we have a team from CTOC that is at Godfrey Stewart from yesterday [Thursday] trying to do some interventions [on] beaches. The gang unit at CTOC has a tailor-made programme to address school violence,”SSP Josephs said.
Late last month a video was circulated on social media, displaying a group of students at the Godfrey Stewart High School— that seemingly formed a gang— assaulting another student.
The video showed several teenage boys confronting another male child, one of whom used a machete to hit the boy all over his body.
Following the video, the teenagers implicated were suspended from school, two of whom were subsequently arrested and charged.
SSP Josephs added that the police are trying to step up activities in schools.
“We are working along with the school principals, deans of the discipline and guidance counsellors,” the top lawman added.