OCHO RIOS, St Ann — Educators at Ocho Rios High School have been giving their full support to the Safe School Programme but it wasn’t enough on Monday to prevent a 12-year-old girl from being shot in the thigh. The bullet came from a gun the police said was taken to school by a 14-year-old boy.

Patrick Bryan is now thinking he may keep his daughter, who is in first form, at home for the next few days. She is on the morning shift, and he had already taken her home when he heard of the shooting — but that’s of little comfort.

“While I am glad that she came home, I still feel a way. My daughter is the same age and it could have been her, because I understand that they were all in the classroom like a normal day when it happened,” he told the Jamaica Observer Monday afternoon.

“Right now I am glad exams are next week. If exams were this week I would really be worrying because I might not make her go to school tomorrow [Tuesday] because of what happened today; no joke,” he added.

According to the police, the shooting was not intentional.

“[The 14-year-old boy] was in the social study lab along with other students when they were handling the firearm and it went off, injuring a 12-year-old female student,” said commanding officer for the St Ann Division, Senior Superintendent Dwight Powell.

A staff member took the injured child to St Ann’s Bay Hospital where she was treated. The gun, which was found in a grey and black knapsack on the floor of a classroom, has been handed over to the police and investigations are now underway. Powell said they are following leads to determine how the boy got the gun. The teen was taken into custody.

Worried parent Bryan, who said this is the first incident of this type at the school that he is aware of, is also questioning how the gun got on the school compound.

“Never hear this before. I don’t know if they never checked them a the gate or if is a youth that is normally abiding by the rules so they didn’t expect him to have it,” he theorised.

Another parent, who wished not to be identified by name, wants greater attention placed on keeping weapons out of schools.

“A life could have been taken today — the life of a 12-year-old at that. You send your child to school to learn and then you get a call that she is in hospital in serious condition due to no fault of hers? The authorities must put this school safety issue on the front burner,” she demanded.

“Can you imagine if the child who brought the gun had gotten into an altercation that day? That news headline could have been much, much worse. These are the things we must come together as a nation and tackle. The child could have been anyone’s child. I empathise with her family and friends and pray that she has a speedy recovery,” she added.

Ocho Rios High has not had many publicised incidents of violence but last February there was a report that a senior school official was assaulted by a female student who had to be restrained. The incident reportedly occurred inside the principal’s office.

According to Senior Superintendent Powell, the school is among the country’s educational institutions being monitored under the Safe Schools Programme, with the “principal and the entire faculty of the school” fully on board with the initiative.

It is unclear when the school became part of the programme, a Government initiative that sees resource officers from the Jamaica Constabulary Force assigned to schools after being trained in mediation, problem-solving, crime prevention, and the dynamics of the school environment. The programme was developed to provide support to schools grappling with students who display violence, antisocial behaviour, and truancy. It also seeks to identify and help children at risk and generally keep the school environment safe.