The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

NATIONAL Security Minister Dr Bernard Nottage yesterday confirmed that there are no students wearing ankle bracelets in schools in The Bahamas.

Dr Nottage told The Tribune that his Ministry has not identified any student presently enrolled in the public school system who is under police monitoring, thus further dismissing claims made in a recent television news report.

“To date we have not been able to identify anyone, that is a registered student, that is under police surveillance,” Dr Nottage said. He joined Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald in praising school policy towards the elimination of school violence.

Reports surfaced this week of students attending public school while being under police electronic monitoring. Those reports also indicated that Ministry of Education officials failed to tell the public that school violence was “out of control” and that teachers and students were in “fear of their lives”.

Mr Fitzgerald emphatically denied the reports, claiming that the majority of incidents were old and “no longer an issue”.

“Most of the issues that have arisen in the media in the past 24 hours are old matters dating back as far as 2011,” Mr Fitzgerald said on Wednesday. Ministry of Education, Science and Technology officials re-introduced the school policing programme two years ago in an effort to improve the safety of all on campuses around the country.

“There has been a strong partnership between the Royal Bahamas Police Force, principals and other school officials. This team effort has resulted in a reduction in school violence and has allowed matters of an unfavourable nature to be dealt with swiftly,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

Dr Nottage added that more still needs to be done to fully eradicate school violence. “We have a lot of social ills and poor family dynamics in our society those are the elements that have to be corrected.” He said that when those situations are corrected and fixed the country will see a full reduction in all forms of crime.