Principal of the St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) Dr Worrel Hibbert has lauded the school resource officers (SROs) deployed at the school and noted that their presence has helped to curtail the number of disputes at the institution.

Speaking with the Jamaica Observer following the Western Kingston Principal Awards Ceremony at the ROK Hotel in downtown Kingston on Thursday, Hibbert shared that last year was challenging with several disputes unfolding around the school.

“I really have to give credit to the police officers at the Denham Town Police Station. Truth be told, their presence in our school have certainly impacted the discipline in a positive sense. Most importantly, what stood out the most to me, was their natural ability to communicate with students even when they were being difficult. They are very patient with them, they are not judgemental,” said Hibbert.

“They don’t behave like a typical police officer, they are more like fathers and mothers who care for these boys and girls and I think that is what we need — showing love and compassion to students, especially difficult students who come from a culture and a history of not trusting police and not having the support of police.

“They have done a tremendous job at the institution, they help us to manage the school and manage where the kids come from and they in turn develop a good relationship with the students and their parents,” added Hibbert.

He pointed out that many of the conflicts at Bumper Hall-based school were a result of “community influence” on students behaviour, which poses serious problems for educators.

According to Hibbert, all the schools in the Ministry of Education’s Quality Education Circle (QEC) 2, which includes STATHS, are in areas described as garrisons. The QEC, a localised group of schools working together under the Jamaica Teaching Council to improve student outcomes and facilitate efficient supervision by the education ministry.

“There is no uptown in our QEC 2, not even no middle town. Our QEC 2 is 100 per cent garrison. You probably won’t find another QEC where it is 100 per cent garrison. These communities, whether historical, recent, or assumed, make up the experiences of our children that we treat with every day. Eighty per cent of our infant and primary children attend school in the QEC. They come from the community. The 50 per cent of the population from the high schools come directly from west Kingston.

“Education has evolved so much, in the past we use to have a system where students in schools were considered to be agents of change in their community, they learnt positive behaviour at school and then go into the communities and effect those positive change. Now it is a reverse — the community has now entrenched a particular behaviour in the students and they take that behaviour to school, so that’s what we need to change. We have to get a grip of that because the influence is a little bit too tight right now and it is creating problems for some schools,” added Hibbert.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon told the
Observer that her ministry is working with its safety branch and the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to implement strategies to tackle disputes that occurs outside of the institutions.

“One of the things we have been able to do quite well, and I think we are seeing some improvement in terms of in the schools, we have our school safety officers. They have been working closely with the JCF and their teams are phenomenal. If you look at west Kingston, they have been working in the schools. When I go to the schools they are there with the children working with them, getting to conflict resolutions, getting to know were they may be interpersonal issues, and helping to solve it,” said Morris Dixon.