The Tribune

By CHESTER ROBARDS Tribune Senior Reporter crobards@tribunemedia.net POLICE will immediately be put back into public schools to combat violence on campuses, should the Progressive Liberal Party be returned power after the general election, the party announced in a press statement released yesterday. School policing, they said, should be a permanent part of the public school system because of the high instances of violence on some campuses in New Providence. The release highlighted the murder of a student on the campus of CC Sweeting. "The Free National Movement Government knows it was wrong to take police out of government schools," the release said. "Still, because they put politics before people, it took an unacceptably long time to take steps to undo that wrong even after a student was killed on the grounds of C C Sweeting's campus." Frank Smith, PLP candidate for Montagu, said in the release that his party will fully reinstate the School Policing Programme. "A major plank of this strategy includes safety, security, and rehabilitative services for our students through Urban Renewal 2.0 and an even more detailed approach to school policing," he said. "Our compendium of crime fighting policies which has as its foundation, preventative methods, contain a holistic approach to redirecting the energies of our youth and steering them away from the violence which plagues their homes, communities and even schools so that they do not come into contact with the law." The PLP admitted, however, that even school policing has not been enough to "arrest the rising incidence of violence on school campuses in the country." Jerome Fitzgerald, PLP candidate for Marathon, also highlighted the need for safer educational institutions for secondary school students. "We know that education is a key factor in assisting many young people in this country from getting out of a life where they are challenged," he said. "We need to make sure they're in a protected environment and that they feel safe so they're able to learn as best as possible." The PLP said it intends to combine three programmes - Violence Breakers, Fifty Bahamians, and Urban Renewal 2.0 - in order to combat crime and "restore safety and civility to Bahamian communities." "We again pledge to launch career path academies, all throughout this country, to provide our people with the opportunities to secure 21st century skills, training and retooling to compete and thrive in the boom of a restored Bahamian economy," the party's release said.