‘A watchman may not be enough’ - Samuels calls on schools to tighten security amid multiple break-in reports

WESTERN BUREAU:

The St James police are urging the Ministry of Education to put adequate security measures in place at schools to address a spike in break-ins in recent weeks.

Speaking at the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC) meeting on Thursday, Senior Superintendent Eron Samuels, who heads the St James Police Division, said schools should include provisions in their budgets for security systems that will reduce or prevent burglaries.

“What we will be asking is for the Ministry of Education to put back in place proper security measures at the schools. Most times, the schools have a watchman, and the watchman may not be adequate enough to cover the kind of infrastructure that is there at the schools,” he said.

“A recommendation that we have been making is for schools to put in place, in their budgets, to have a proper security guard and security system in terms of cameras, et cetera, because security is important in all that we do,” Samuels added.

He was responding to a concern raised by Anthony Murray, councillor for the Rose Hall division, who cited reports of a recent attempted break-in at Corinaldi Primary School in Montego Bay.

“We have had a serious increase in the number of break-ins at schools, and I am asking what mechanism can be put in place, where the different stations may put some emphasis or some of their resources in patrolling, or some form of intervention, where they can include these educational institutions in their patrols,” said Murray.

The Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) recently expressed alarm over the number of break-ins across the country, including a report from the Ministry of Education last month that six primary schools had been targeted across St James and Hanover since late August.

At that time, the Bickersteth Primary School, in St James, was the most recent target on September 16, with the intruders taking 14 laptop computers and one desktop computer, a quantity of food items, and an undisclosed sum of money.

Thieves have also targeted solar energy systems at a number of western schools.

“There are schools across Jamaica without adequate perimeter fencing, and administrators and school boards have written letters, submitted requests, and raised these concerns in meetings year after year. The JTA is calling for a national risk-based assessment of school security and a funded, time-bound programme addressing perimeter fencing and the wider security needs of our schools,” JTA President La Sonja Harrison said lamenting.

Meanwhile, Samuels told Thursday’s meeting that efforts to stop school break-ins will require planned operations based on what may have been stolen from the affected schools.

“While we definitely want to ensure that we pay attention to all the critical infrastructure in and around the policing areas, for the break-ins at the schools, we realise that this has to be a coordinated operation based on what was stolen and the times they happened and everything. But we will definitely try and ramp up how often we visit the schools,” said Samuels.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com