Police were called to the C.C. Sweeting Junior High School to break up an altercation between three students on Tuesday but an education official said yesterday that the call for back up was excessive and the incident could have been easily resolved.
Director of Communications at the Ministry of Education, Heloise Stuart-Newbold told The Bahama Journal that calling for additional police assistance drew unwanted attention to the matter.
“The incident was an unfortunate incident but it is one that is being resolved,” Mrs. Stuart-Newbold said in an interview on Wednesday. “Because of the nature of the incident, two students being hurt, we have got school-based policing on the campus and the officers onsite decided to call in additional reinforcement.
“This was really not necessary, in my opinion. Where in similar incidents you might call in someone to assist you in enforcing the law or in making sure that no additional students are hurt, in this incident there was no reason to bring in additional enforcement.”
Mrs. Stuart-Newbold said the issue had already been “regularised” and that the school’s Oakes Field campus was back to normal on Tuesday.
“I have spoken with the persons in charge at C.C. Sweeting Junior and the situation has been handled,” she said. “The senior master has handled the incident and there is now a sense of normalcy on the campus.”
Mrs. Stuart-Newbold pointed out that there are guidelines in all schools addressing the protection of students and teachers.
“There are certain schools that we are now piloting the school-based policing in, and they are simply there to assist. They are not supposed to be confrontational,” she said.
But the Chief Superintendent of Police with responsibility for in-school presence, Juanita Colebrook, believes the call for back up was not excessive and said that given the nature of the incident, additional assistance was necessary.
“The incident happened on the premises where one student would have attacked two others and they were injured,” Mrs. Colebrook said on Wednesday. “Because of the seriousness of the injuries to both of the students, the emergency medical services were called and the officer at the scene would have called for assistance from other officers.
“The assistance was in carrying out the initial investigation. The matter has now been taken over for investigation by the Southern Police Station. In this particular incidence the officer felt the injuries were serious so he called for persons to assist him in his investigation.”
Mrs. Stuart-Newbold said the perpetrator of the incident was taken into police custody and the two injured students were taken to the hospital. She said that in all of the cases parents accompanied students.
Meantime, police are investigating an incident at the R.M. Bailey High School that resulted in a student being taken to the hospital.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Creswell Sturrup said that he would provide an update after the police had formulated a report on the matter.
By: Perez Clarke, The Bahama Journal
