The Tribune

THE news that police are now back on school campuses might well bring a familiar feeling for many readers.

This is not the first time police have been stationed at schools. Back in 2003, the PLP formed a School Policing Unit that placed officers in public schools. That scheme was discontinued in 2007 under the FNM government, but back it came in 2012 under the Christie administration.

So while National Security Minister Wayne Munroe said that the move this time is “intelligence driven”, some may be forgiven for thinking this is just more of the same old, same old.

But things are different this time around – something that Education Minister Glenys Hanna Martin noted yesterday.

“We have to appreciate that these young people have been out of the loop for two years. Many have not been in school at all. Some have been on the streets; some have been cooped up for extended periods of time so we’re not dealing with a normal environment for these people.”

What Mrs Hanna Martin has hinted towards there, The Tribune has heard from readers too. One such reader, a teacher, told The Tribune how this year has been different in terms of how children are relating to one another at school.

The teacher said that schools are experiencing more incidents of conflict – often nothing major, but incidents brought about because children have been, as Mrs Hanna Martin puts it, cooped up for a long time. For certain crucial years, particularly the children making the transition between junior school and high school, these have been the years where they would develop the socialisation skills dealing with those around them, while the school instills in them the responsibility for their behaviour. In short, many are two years taller, two years bigger, but still behaving in social terms like children two years younger.

That at least is the experience some are going through.

Whether the introduction of police into schools is nuanced enough to deal with young people’s behaviour as they grow into themselves or not is another question – but it is a very different landscape from those years when the PLP previously placed officers in schools.

Add to that the fact that the country is in the middle of a turf war between gangs, and some of these children may have been living on the street more than previously and have come into contact with these gangs, and it is worth considering this move on its own merits rather than as part of a familiar political cycle.

What we do not want this to do is to end up with more children in handcuffs, charged and going before the court – the key has to be to steer them away from criminal behaviour rather than formally name them as criminals.

But we also want to see that they are safe – and we have already seen a stabbing take place at AF Adderley school last week.

Parents want to know that when they send their children to school they will come home, safe and sound.

We will see what the outcome of this move will be, we will see it in crime figures, we will see it in police expenditure. We will wonder whether those officers might have been better deployed in other areas. But we may not see the most crucial area of all – how it affects these children who have had such a different childhood from those who came before them. This is a generation interrupted – and putting them back on the right track may be the most crucial task we face.

Prison probe

When National Security Minister Wayne Munroe sent Corrections Commissioner Charles Murphy on leave in October, this column questioned why he did not recuse himself from such a decision, given his involvement with a court case in which he represented two deputy commissioners seeking to quash Mr Murphy’s appointment.

We said that he should step back from the process and ensure it is handled independently.

The news then that the government is seeking to have a Canadian corrections officer lead an independent committee to investigate Mr Murphy’s tenure is a welcome one. Having someone from outside the jurisdiction is something commonly done in police forces and other bodies, and this follows that protocol.

It should ensure that whatever decision is reached, it can be seen to be fair as long as the investigation is carried out appropriately, rather than having a perceived bias because of previous involvement.

Mr Munroe may not have made the best start in his handling of this matter, but this is a good choice.