THERE was calm in Spanish Town on Monday as police maintained a high presence to ensure public order and continued safety of citizens, following Friday’s uprising in the aftermath of the police killing of alleged gangster Sheldon Lennox Walters, alias Termite, in the old capital.

At the same time, schools which closed their gates and had classes online Monday due to the violent reaction to the police killing and the subsequent imposition of a curfew in some sections of the town, are expected to reopen today.

A 48-hour curfew was imposed Saturday in some areas, from 6:00 pm on Saturday, April 20 to 6:00 pm on Monday, April 22. Affected areas included Top Banks and Oxford Road.

Among schools closed Monday were Jonathan Grant High School, St Jago High School, Spanish Town High School, Jose Marti Technical High, Spanish Town Infant and Primary School, and St Catherine Primary.

“You see how one little thing can affect everything? Everything lock down. School will most likely reopen Tuesday, though. We just have to watch how the day goes and then, by later, they should decide,” said a security guard who was the only person in sight at St Catherine High School.

A vendor outside St Jago High School who lamented that she didn’t get any of the usual sales from the students because of the school’s closure said she fully understood the necessity of schools resorting to the online platform on Monday.

“Sometimes coffee and sometimes tea,” she said.

The Jamaica Observer spotted only one student in uniform in the town centre of the old capital.

The student explained that he attends Old Harbour High, which was not affected directly by tension in Spanish Town.

Vendors at the market in Spanish Town bemoaned the trickle of customers on Monday

Solid waste collection in the town was also impacted. A male vendor said the rubbish trucks usually remove solid waste every morning, but because of the tension they did not come out on Monday.

He claimed that the flare-up wasn’t enough to stop the sanitation teams from carrying out their duties in Spanish Town.

While attacking false information being circulated on social media about the situation in Spanish Town, Superintendent Hopton Nicholson, acting commander of the St Catherine North Police Division, said the police and military had done well to clear roads that were blocked by residents following the police killing.

“Over the past few days there have been some events in the St Catherine North Division stemming from a criminal-police confrontation. This led to a few roads being blocked. Friday into Saturday morning, the police and the military, along with other agencies, managed to clear them as early as 11:00 am Saturday morning. All roads have been clear since. The entire Spanish Town area is slightly tense but businesses are open and commuters are going to and from unimpeded,” he said.

Nicholson implored the public to use only verified sources to get information on the situation in the town.

“We hope that full normalcy will be returned soon. In the meantime, the police and military will be having high-visibility patrols and maintaining a presence to ensure order is preserved. There is a lot of unverified information circulating on social media; people are splicing old videos and saying that it is the current situation in Spanish Town. We ask that you use CCU (Corporate Communication Unit) or the Jamaica Constabulary Force social media pages for current information, or just wait until mainstream media put out credible reports on the status of what is going on. The security forces will be out there to ensure law-abiding citizens go about their lawful business,” said Nicholson.

Following the killing of Walters and the protest by residents, police took 22 people into custody but eventually released 20 of them, after issuing them with stern warnings.

Of the two remaining in custody, Nicholson said: “One will be charged for breaches of the Public Order Act and the Town and Community Act. He is also a person of interest in a shooting.

“The other person who remains with us is a person of interest in a murder. We will be monitoring various spaces to make sure the people released don’t reoffend in regards to blocking the roads,” he said.

Commenting on threats against the security forces, Senior Superintendent of Police Christopher Philips, acting commander of Area Five, which includes St Catherine, said police will continue to monitor the situation.

“Things are still active. We are not going to take anything for granted and so the teams are advised to continue to be alert out there,” he said.