TERRITORIAL officer for the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Area Three, Deputy Superintendent of Police Melecia Morrison, says with violence in schools in Manchester, Clarendon and St Elizabeth last academic year posing “a major concern”, the police will be ramping up the Safe Schools Programme component of its operations and other campaigns targeting academic trouble spots.

Speaking on a recent back-to-school forum series put on by Serenity Resource Centre, Morrison said the decision emanated from the assessment for the 2024 to 2025 school year and the year prior.

“One of our major concerns was violence in schools, and this is both among students and also from external individuals. Over the 2024-2025 school year there were several violent incidents at schools. The most recent one was a brawl which occurred at a Clarendon-based high school; this resulted in a number of students being injured, some seriously. At the same school there was also a stabbing incident earlier in the school year,” the police officer said.

“In the previous school year, that’s the 2023 to 2024 [academic year], there was a fatal stabbing at a school in Manchester, and these highlight another issue that we are having — the presence and the prevalence of weapons in our schools. One shocking incident…happened in St Elizabeth [in September 2024] where [a] seven-year-old was found on the grounds of a primary school with a sub-machine gun in his backpack. This also led to another issue that we also experienced where external persons pose a threat to the school community because, coming out of this incident, there were threats being sent by persons to the school administration, the school staff, and as a result that school had to temporarily close and resort to online classes for a period,” Morrison chronicled.

She said two murders in the vicinity of school campuses last year in that police division had amplified the concern of cops.

“We had two murders affecting schools in Manchester. In one instance, the bus driver at one of the high schools was shot and killed on the school campus. In the other incident, a parent was shot and killed at the gate of a primary school. And, in both instances, it was during the period where children would be coming into school, parents would be dropping off [children]; so these incidents occurred in the presence of parents, students and also school officials, and it was very traumatic for all of those persons.

“Additionally, we had a disturbing incident in Clarendon where a parent and relatives of a student invaded a school and attacked a teacher because a bag was taken from a student,” she noted.

According to DSP Morrison, such incidents highlight the need for “very strong security protocols on our school compounds”.

“We need very strong access control,” she said, adding that beyond these major issues are the “minor situations that, if not treated properly, they fester over time and they may escalate into more serious occurrences”.

“So, as we look at it, we see where violence is one of the major concerns that we’re having. We also have concerns with weapons in schools. Students and also parents have displayed poor conflict resolution skills…resulting in attacks from external entities on our school compounds. In addition to this, we also see where there is some amount of truancy where students choose to loiter along roadways and not turn up to school, and this can lead them into engaging in delinquent behaviour. So, those are just some of the concerns that we’re having in Area Three,” Morrison said.

As a result, she said Area Three, which comprises three divisions with a total of 34 stations, has adopted a number of strategies.

“One of the main one for us is our Safe Schools Programme, and we have expanded this programme by assigning additional trained school resource officers to schools, and these police officers…assist the school administration, the deans of discipline, the guidance counsellors, to maintain discipline. They maintain physical security on the school compound, and because they visit and spend time there they are also able to contribute to the security presence on the compound,” she said.

Morrison said safe school officers also provide guidance and mentorship to students, particularly those who are suspended from school.

“So rather than having these children being sent home and not being supervised, the schools partner with the police officers, the students actually stay at the station, then the Community Safety and Security Branch (CSSB) partners with counsellors and social workers. This is aimed at addressing some of the issues that may have led to the suspension in the first place,” the cop explained.

In the meantime, she said the police have included in their arsenal education outreach programmes which include lectures and workshops with both parents and students. A ‘No guns, No gangs, No violence and No drugs Campaign/School Tour’ by the Clarendon CSSB has led to, “a significant reduction in the number of school-related incidents that required intervention from the police”.

“We also have been introducing police youth clubs in schools in Manchester. There are five clubs already established at four high schools — May Day, Bishop Gibson, Alphansus Davis, and Christiana — and one primary school, that’s the Robins Hall Primary School.

“We also do our community engagement. We are currently conducting camps both in Lacovia, St Elizabeth, and also Asia in Manchester where we have our youth camps and we engage our young people or children, and also parents, as a means of just offering them some guidance, additional skills, training, the opportunity to socialise and also divert them from delinquent activities,” she said.

Morrison, in the meantime, emphasised that, “no matter how well-crafted the strategies are by the JCF and the Ministry of Education, the success will be hampered without the support of parents”.

“We need our parents to come on board; one of the ways that they can do so is by being actively present. The parents should ensure that they are a part [of] and active participant[s] in the parent-teachers association. This is one of the means by which a lot of information is passed to parents; it also provides information on what is occurring in the schools. You can also receive information as it relates to the performance of your child.

“It is through these meetings, as well as with your grade coordinator meetings, that you get a feel of what is happening, because sometimes the child that we know at home is not necessarily the child that is present at school, and we need this information in order to properly guide them and also to assist them,” she said.

Morrison also urged parents to monitor children’s activities and behaviour, both in the physical space and online.