The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

WHEN he defended the safety of school campuses on Monday, Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald mischaracterised research College of The Bahamas professors have done on the matter as he sought to bolster his argument that the presence of police in schools has made campuses safer.

During his communication in the House of Assembly, Mr Fitzgerald sought to draw a distinction between the level of safety in public schools and the dangers students face when they leave school grounds.

His statements came days after 16-year-old Adonai Wilson was stabbed during a fight after school with fellow students of Doris Johnson Senior High School less than a mile away from the campus. Wilson died in hospital shortly after the incident.

Since the killing, education officials have stressed that public school campuses are safe places.

“I wish to share a study that was conducted by Nicolette Bethel and William J Fielding, School of Social Sciences of the College of the Bahamas, entitled ‘Where do high school children feel safest?’” Mr Fitzgerald said.

“This study... claims ‘that school policing in The Bahamas has been a success’.’’

However, The Tribune obtained a copy of the study in question and found that the document specifically says that school policing in The Bahamas cannot be declared a success based on available information.

“Despite claims that school policing in The Bahamas has been a success, the authors are unaware of any evaluation of assigning police to schools in The Bahamas,” the study notes.

During the study, researches surveyed recent high school graduates, asking them where they feel safest: at home, school, in the community outside of home or on the route between school and home.

Most of the respondents said they felt safest at home.

Though there were significant limitations to their study, the researchers said there was no correlation among respondents between the presence of armed officers in schools and youth feeling safer in schools.

There was, however, indication that the presence of police in communities made students feel safer in their neighbourhoods.

“In fact, schools with armed police tended to be regarded as less safe than schools without police…The data does not appear to support the notion that placing police in the schools has made them safer,” the report also notes.

During his communication, Mr Fitzgerald cited another piece of research by Mr Fielding featured in the 2012 paper “Violence in the Schools,” which noted “children feel safer in school than outside of school”.

However, the home was not included as an option in this second study and the researcher did not attribute this safer feeling to the presence of police in public schools.

In his research with Dr Bethel, Mr Fielding noted that findings which show students feel safer in school rather than outside school also show that young people take “weapons to school to protect themselves on the way to school, not at school and so the decision to assign police to schools seems to be debatable”.

The Ministry of Education has repeatedly described schools as increasingly safe places for students and teachers.

But some observers have disputed the levels of safety on campuses.

Placing officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) in schools is also a strategy that is not without its critics.

In a statement to The Tribune, Tavarrie Smith, a youth justice attorney, said that the strategy does not demonstrably make campuses safer, though it serves as a pipeline for sending some children through the criminal justice system.

“There are many challenges with placing armed police in schools. While the intention may be good, the impact can be devastating to a child’s future,” he said.

“Ordinarily, offending students would have had the benefit of school authorities handling disciplinary matters as opposed to school altercations escalating into criminal charges. According to the Department of Rehabilitative and Welfare Services, since 2009 juveniles accused of crimes have increased by 79 per cent.

“Our schools need evidence-based dispute resolution and restorative justice programmes for at-risk students as opposed to turning every infraction into a police matter. School policing is becoming a pipeline for placing students into the criminal justice system and places them in direct conflict with police officers.

“There is mounting evidence that shows placing students in conflict with the law will only increase the drop-out rate and likely lead to more serious offences. The role to be played by school police should not be a campus presence, but should be one that increases safety for students during commute route to and from school – which the Fielding study indicates as being one of the least safe environments for students. Get on these buses, post officers at bus stops, visit these business establishments students patronise for breakfast, walk the street routes students take –- school authorities know where students gather off campus – that is where school policing is needed.”

Attempts to reach Mr Fitzgerald for comment were unsuccessful yesterday.