BICKERSTETH, St James — The lament of a 10-year-old student struck a chord with residents Thursday after thieves ransacked Bickersteth Primary and Infant School, making off with computers and tuck shop supplies in the fifth break-in there in just seven years.

“Mommy, them people yah want me turn cruff,” was how the boy reacted to news of the break-in, his mother told the Jamaica Observer.

The mother, who asked not be named, said her son, a grade five student, cried on the verandah of their house as he was told that school would be closed on Thursday and Friday because of the crime.

“I told him ‘Son, you nah turn cruff, we will stand with you’,” she related to the Observer.

Cruff is a Jamaican colloquial term for individuals who are deemed lazy, lack ambition, or have poor social etiquette.

The mother is among parents and residents who are now expressing anguish over the situation at the school.

“I usually send him out before me, but he has to stay home with his sister today,” the distraught mother said.

A bent grill shows how thieves entered the Bickersteth Primary and Infant School tuck shop early Thursday morning.

On Thursday morning, school administrators turned up to see windows and doors at the school pried open and items missing.

“They ripped the grill out the wall, broke the window and came in,” Principal Robert Gordon said. “Not even [Hurricane] Melissa did a job like that, the place was ransacked.”

Category 5 Melissa left widespread destruction across western and south-western parishes last October.

Principal Gordon said Thursday’s early morning break-in was the fifth in seven years.

“Last year, this time, they broke into the school twice, but that individual was held. We lost some equipment as well — computers and food items,” Gordon said.

He speculated that the robbery may be connected with others committed in western Jamaica in recent times.

Workmen replace damaged windows at Bickersteth Primary and Infant School on Thursday following the robbery.

“Based on what is happening now and the series of schools — Bogue Hill, Retrieve, Anchovy — it seems like they are just going through and hitting schools in a series,” Gordon said.

A man who gave his name as Anglin, described the break-in as disheartening.

“I have four daughters and all of them went through here. The last one was head girl at Anchovy, one got 11 subjects at Mount Alvernia, but this is the ground where it all started,” he said.

“This is heartbreaking, man,” he added.

On Thursday, following an emergency meeting of the school board, several members of staff were seen engaged in cleaning-up activities while listening to gospel music amid the sound of power tools as work was ongoing to replace a damaged window.

“We are trying to fix back as best as possible, even though it might be temporary, but we want to secure the area from the elements because rain may fall and the entire area is ripped out and we don’t want the office to be compromised any further,” Principal Gordon told the Observer.

“The gentleman that is working now is a community person; he’s from the area, his children came to school here. We called him, he dropped what he was doing, and he’s here and we are very appreciative of that,” Gordon said, adding that the school will be closed for the rest of the week while they work to sort things out. However, online classes will be held.

The thieves cut open this section of this door to break into Bickersteth Primary and Infant School early Thursday morning.

“One of the things we looked at is the impact it will have on the students seeing the school ripped apart and that could have a long-term impact on their mental psyche,” the principal explained.

“We said, ‘Okay, let’s sort of fix back the school in a way, because these children are very young, they are very impressionable, and we have to be mindful of what they see’,” he added.

“We have spoken to the teachers and we have asked them to send out work for the students to do virtually,” he revealed.

On Wednesday, Education Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon acknowledged that schools, particularly in western Jamaica, are being plagued by break-ins since the start of the academic year.

“The west has gone through a lot of trauma for us to be dealing with theft of computers for these schools and these children, it is really heartbreaking,” she lamented during the weekly post-Cabinet news briefing.

She said the series of robberies has resulted in her reaching out to the national security minister and police commissioner for assistance.

Bickersteth Primary and Infant School Principal Robert Gordon looks in the secretary’s office which was broken into by thieves early Thursday morning leaving major damage to files.