The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

STUDENTS can expect to see a larger police presence in schools this school year, with the Friday graduation of 27 more school resource officers.

This comes after a series of violent incidents on school campuses during the last school year, including the stabbing of a high school student earlier this year.

In February, police reported that a 17-year-old student in Abaco was stabbed by another student of the same age while on the playing field.

After the stabbing incident, Education Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin said she asked officials to consider placing police officers at the school where the incident occurred.

Police Chief Superintendent Chasewell Forbes told reporters yesterday that since reimplementation of the school policing programme last year, school safety has been improved.

“Preliminary indicators of school safety have all found that school safety is being improved,” he said. “We see a decrease in violence. We see a decrease in fighting, particularly after school.

“The school resource officers are in those classrooms preventing incidents before they happen. If they get word of something, say a fight, is going to happen after school, they intervene and prevent it from happening.

“One of the main reasons for that is the partnership, not only the school resource officers, but the principals, the teachers, the other security officers, all members of the school environment, working together to ensure that the school is safe and we are happy with it so far,” he said.

CSP Forbes said the policing programme, which had previously only been in nine schools, has been expanded to include 29 schools throughout The Bahamas. That is 15 senior and junior high schools in New Providence, three schools in Abaco, three schools in Eleuthera, two schools in Andros and one school in Exuma.

Mr Forbes also said police are now exploring the possibility of expanding the policing programme to primary schools.

Mr Forbes’ comments came on the sidelines of a graduation ceremony for 27 school resource officers, or SROs, on Friday.

The Police Training College’s School of Professional Development in conjunction with the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) hosted the graduation ceremony for the police officers.

The 27 graduates of the Basic School Resource Officers Training Course brought the total number of officers involved in the school policing programme to about 60, said CSP Forbes.

The graduates are from New Providence as well as many of the family islands, including Inagua, Mayaguana, Crooked Island, Grand Bahama, Long Island and San Salvador.

Mrs Hanna Martin, who was also at the ceremony, said although she initially wanted to avoid having officers in schools, she realised the need for the programme and, so far, is happy with the results.

“I was very dubious. I came from an understanding that you didn’t need police on a school campus. I always felt that, even when we had police there before,” she said.

“However, it was the data, it was also after the reopening of schools after the movement from pandemic conditions, we began to see some very disturbing trends on the campus, which caused me very great concern.

“At one of our schools, we had a serious incident and then we had a few other serious incidents after that. It was absolutely plain and clear that we had to intervene in some shape or form,” she said.

National Security Minister Wayne Munroe, who addressed the graduates at the graduation ceremony, said: “My position is the Royal Bahamas Police Force is responsible for policing the entire Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

“That includes every school and every neighbourhood, including communities, but it does so with cooperation with the stakeholders in that area.

“The reintroduction of school resource officers happened because of a traumatic event and immediately President (Belinda) Wilson wanted to know what was going to be the basis of this reintroduction of police at schools, because that was a concern.

“We prefer prevention, because prevention prevents harm to society firstly and the loss of a student personally,” Mr Munroe said.

Bahamas Union of Teachers President Belinda Wilson said she is pleased with the programme so far.

“This is a true collaboration of two ministries with a programme that I can say is successful. Because of the intelligence gathering and the role that the SROs play in the schools on a daily basis, keeping our teachers, students and other support staff safe,” she said.