THE repair of the perimeter fence at the Ocho Rios Primary School in St Ann will form part of measures to ramp up security at the school, after a vendor sold drug-laced sweets to students at the institution on Monday, resulting in more than 60 of them being taken to hospital for treatment.

Minister of Education and Youth Fayval Williams announced the improved security plan while addressing students and staff at the school on Tuesday.

While noting that majority of the affected students had been discharged from hospital, Williams expressed concern that the accused vendor was able to sell the pupils the drug-laced sweets, even though he was sent away from the school gate.

“When he was told to leave the front, he found another way and he made sure he sold the product to the children, our innocent, innocent children,” bemoaned Williams.

She noted that the school has a host of safety measures in place but those will be bolstered with the fixing of the perimeter fence high on the agenda.

“I was very happy when I came to learn that this school is one of the star schools for the Safe Schools Project…and you can see it beginning at the gate, where you have to have an ID [identification card] to come in and they have to know who is driving in.

“I am sure there are cameras here as well and if there are not, we will ensure that the school has cameras. I see that your fencing needs repairing and so we will put that on the priority list to get done,” Williams said.

She further pointed out that a multi-ministry approach is being taken to prevent a repeat of Monday’s incident.

She said the ministries of health and national security are collaborating for this effort.

“I know the Ministry of National Security…Dr [Horace] Chang is already on it, to see if we can identify that person, to find out where he bought those products, how he got them into the hands of our children,” said Williams.

“Minister [Dr Christopher] Tufton was very concerned as well, about the situation, about the fact that these products came into the country, because they are not made here and they reached as far as into our primary schools, to our children,” added the education minister.

On Thursday Tufton used a post-Cabinet media briefing at Jamaica House to underscore his disgust at the incident.

“There are so many lessons to be learnt from this incident. For starters, it shows how vulnerable our children are if we do not pay the necessary attention to their care and guidance. These were unsuspecting kids who were in a safe space, a school, and had no reason to feel that they were being exposed to the dangers that was in that sachet that was sold to them…They didn’t go out looking for it, it was brought to them and the rest is history,” said Tufton.

“Thank God it has not turned out worse, even though there are linger impacts that would need to be assessed on the life of a child who has been traumatised in this manner, and public health is sensitive to that. We will be working with the National Council on Drug Abuse, and with the institution through the principal, and the ministry of education through the minister,” added Tufton.

Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson has named Devon Holness of Mansfield Heights, Ocho Rios in St Ann as a person of interest in relation to the sale of ganja-laced sweets to the students.

The sweets were in packaging which specifies they are not to be sold to minors. Each is said to contain 100mg of the psychoactive substance delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is generally considered to be a high dose for an adult.

According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), delta-8 has “intoxicating effects”.