Inspector Higgs said that during the spring semester, four primary schools on Grand Bahama reported incidents that required police attention.
“What is amazing about this is that these youngsters are in the fourth and fifth grades.
The primary schools are very active. I believe had we been focusing on those primary schools, we would have had more incidents recorded,” Inspector Higgs said.
The School Based Unit does not presently include the primary schools, although it is an area that requires special attention, he noted.
Inspector Higgs said he felt that if there were police present in primary schools, there would have been even more incidents reported.
“If we could curb [the negative activity] in the primary schools, then we would not have so many problems in the high school,” he opined.
In the meantime, Inspector Higgs said, “We are doing some primary school work off the scene as best we can.”
Providing an update on the cases that were dealt with on high school campuses on the island during the spring semester, Inspector Higgs noted new trends surfacing, which he said were different from what the policing unit saw during the fall semester in 2005.
“One of the things we noted this year as opposed to last year is there was a decrease in the number of weapons. That was one of the goals we had,” Inspector Higgs said.
He added that officers found weapons which were smaller, posing a challenge for the police. He also said the weapons were concealed in trousers and in the waist.
Inspector Higgs added that sharp objects were used as weapons and many were found, including various types and sizes of knives and cutlasses.
There were no firearms of any type, real or imitation, confiscated during the spring semester.
Additional incidents ranging from drug trafficking, stealing, fighting, and in a few cases counterfeit money being circulated, increased from 60 reported cases during the fall to 72 in the spring, Inspector Higgs said.
He believes the extra two months included in the spring period accounted for the increase.
The inspector said that the public schools continue to be a major challenge for officers, since they continue to account for the majority of cases reported.
He said the police only handled three matters in the private schools.
Most of the cases in public schools involved males with the number of young men increasing during the spring term from 68 to 129.
Inspector Higgs attributed the increased numbers to the amount of group activity reported.
He mentioned one incident in a high school in Abaco, which involved 15 males. Grand Bahama also saw gang style incidents where eight males were reported to the police on a matter from Jack Hayward High School, and another 12 males were collected from St. Georges High.
In contrast, female involvement decreased by 17 from 50 in the fall to 33 in the spring.
Inspector Higgs said females were also “using the group approach” with one or two incidents involving three to four young women.
The number of arrests made increased in the spring with 16 students detained compared to only six during the semester before.
Inspector Higgs said that while students involved in crimes or other deviant behaviour are brought into the station, they are not always charged with an offence.
“Often we want to send a message to the students, or we want to meet with the parents in a police environment. There are also times they may be held while an investigation is going on,” he explained.
Also at the press conference, Benjamin Stubbs, principal of Jack Hayward, said he has noticed a trend among students in recent time.
“Students are more inclined now than ever before to share information with the police in regards to students carrying weapons. To me it is a positive thing,” Mr. Stubbs said.
Acting Senior Master of Eight Mile Rock High Albert Jones added that the assistance of officers of the unit has proven to be invaluable on campus.
“The public school profession in teaching is severely lacking a few good men and it was a tremendous uplift and boost to our campus to have a few additional men added to our campus because you can see the increase in the involvement of males in crime and incidents on the campus,” Mr. Jones said.
By: Daphne McIntosh, The Bahama Journal
