St James educators execute loitering operation in MoBay town centre
Published:Saturday | February 11, 2023 | 12:40 AMHopeton Bucknor/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
PRINCIPALS AND deans of discipline from various high schools across St James carried out an operation in Montego Bay, St James, on Thursday morning to address the problem of students who are loitering in the city. The exercise became necessary as students made it a habit to hang around at various points including the transport centre where they conduct themselves inappropriately.
Principal of Anchovy High, Lavern Stewart, told The Gleaner that deans of disciplines and principals from schools in the Second City joined forces to remove the students from the streets to the educational institutions.
“It’s an initiative from the coalition of Principals Corps, and we are here to take our students off the streets and get them into vehicles and off to schools, based on the fact that we have an issue with punctuality as it relates to our students and loitering on the road,” Stewart stated.
The move also included Harry Hanson, principal at the Cambridge High School; Victor Newsome, principal at Irwin High; Joseph Williams, principal at St James High; Richard Hanson, principal of Spot Valley High, and Orane Ebanks, principal at Green Pond, plus a number of deans of discipline.
“I think we had a pretty successful morning, we accomplished a lot,” Stewart said.
She explained that as principals converged on the Montego Bay Transport Centre, students who were loitering started to board the relevant buses to school.
Vince Young, who manages the Montego Bay Transport Centre, told The Gleaner that the operation was a very good initiative.
“Well, it’s a good initiative because children are here in the mornings in numbers, lots of them, waiting on special vehicles, special buses, for whatever reason I don’t know,” the bus park’s manager said.
“During this period of the morning, without this operation by the teachers you would see a number of children loitering, smoking, drinking alcohol, I presume, using indecent language, hugging up, touching each other inappropriately, I suppose, so it’s a good initiative and I believe they should continue to do this from time to time,” Young explained.
Parents also joined in and commended the principals, and requested more operations of the sort each week.
Nancy, a parent employed to the Montego Bay Transport Centre, was overjoyed at the efforts of the educators to instill discipline in the students and encouraging them to stay in school.
“Well mi glad fi that, mi glad fi that because a lot of students, their behaviour is very terrible. Them change when them ready, wi have to call the police,” she said.
“Them curse the most bad words, them smoke weed, them drink them rum and Boom, and change off inna b rider and all kind of different (clothes),” she continued.