BLACK RIVER, St Elizabeth — Police Commissioner Major General Antony Anderson has suggested that changes are needed to tackle indiscipline in schools.

Speaking at a town hall meeting in Black River on Wednesday, Anderson said the indiscipline in schools should be addressed to ensure that school resource officers can focus on mentorship.

“…If you think about it really, it is not perhaps the best way forward in perpetuity. We have a very developed programme of school resource officers where police officers are in schools dealing with all kinds of matters. In some respects they are mentors, which is a good thing. In other respects there are many concerns about discipline in schools and fights [and] we are asking police officers to be in there. I have over 200 of them,” he said.

“We do it [and] we will continue to do it as long as there is a need, but I think it is worth considering as citizens, all of us, whether that is the future we want for our schools,” he added.

There have been reports of teachers being aulted by students in recent weeks evoking fear among educators.

According to Anderson, the need for police in schools “for teachers to teach without fear and principals to take the necessary actions they want to take for the betterment of the school community is a little concerning for me”.

“I don’t believe it is the way forward. I believe we have to fill that gap in the meantime, but I think we need a process and programme of how we are going to address that matter so that police can come out of school and when police come to school they come to give a lecture. When they come to school they teach people how to use the road. Telling them about being good citizens, and mentoring some of the young people; that is where we want to get,” he added.

He said, however, that the police will continue to provide support to schools.

“Not because there is a breakdown in discipline leading to things that now become in the remit of the police; that is not a good way forward,” Anderson said, reiterating that the constabulary is committed to assist in schools once it has the capacity and the need is there.