Legislative coercion needed..

[Exile]

We must secure our students

Friday, September 14, 2007

Our condolences go out to the Montego Bay Preparatory School community which was on Wednesday traumatised after gunmen invaded their compound and murdered a parent in full view of everybody.
We can only imagine the mayhem that must have ensued - especially in the minds of the young students - at the sight of 45 year-old electrical engineer Mr Leo Harris going down under a hail of bullets.
This frightening incident highlights, yet again, the need for a system of security that does more to protect our children from those who simply have neither respect nor regard for their safety.
According to the report in yesterday's edition of the Observer West, Mr Harris was gunned down at about 8:05 am while in the process of dropping off his young daughter at the school.
Several other parents who had nothing to do with what appears to have been the ultimate expression of a vendetta on the part of his murderers, had to scurry for cover with their young wards. This must have been as frightening as it was unexpected.
And we're sure that, counselling aside, it will be very difficult for the campus to return to normal operations without a serious review of its security protocol.
We would like to submit that the Montego Bay Preparatory School is not the only institution in need of such a review.
For there are many other institutions which are charged with the task of nurturing the nation's youth which are as vulnerable as Montego Bay Preparatory.
These must be secured as a matter of urgency with the relevant human and technological support systems. Of course, we don't realistically expect this to happen overnight. However, we don't expect it to take forever either.
As such we are calling on the State to supplement the emotional support network that was able to immediately go to the rescue of the traumatised in Wednesday's attack with the legislative and practical framework to ensure that all schools are outfitted with appropriate security personnel and protocols. It will be yet another item on the long list of challenges that will determine how this administration is judged. Yet, for the sake of our children, their future and ours, it must be done.
In this regard, we would also like to bring the State's attention to the opinion concerning the transportation system for the nation's students, penned by one Mr Raphael Humphrey in yesterdays edition of the Observer West.
The type of lawlessness described by Mr Humphrey is symptomatic of the breakdown of respect that is negatively impacting so many aspects of public life.
And as bad as it sounds, it would appear that some amount of legislative coercion is needed in order to swing things around.
Let's not be shy in our quest to find solutions to this troubling problem of indiscipline that threatens the liberties of all of us.