'We'll make it, anyway' - Trench Town Primary hit hard by thieves, vows to press on

Robert Lalah, Assistant Editor - Features

As a primary school teacher working in a tough inner-city community, Janice Spencer-Francis knows a thing or two about facing challenges. She's the literacy co-ordinator at Trench Town Primary in St Andrew, and deals every week with all sorts of obstacles. But last week was particularly difficult for the fourth-grade teacher.

Thieves invaded the primary school the previous weekend, making off with nine computers, a printer, a fan, three radios and about $16,000 in cash. It was a crippling blow to a school already burdened daily with the threat of community violence, economic hardships and the fluctuating attendance these problems cause.

"We already have so much to deal with, it's hard to explain just how much this sets us back," said Spencer-Francis, standing at the back of her classroom last week.

"The thieves even came into this classroom. They walked all over the little garden we have outside that the children take care of, broke through the window and came inside here. I don't understand what they were expecting to get from a classroom," she said, shaking her head.

The thieves may not have found anything of value to them in the classroom, but they did stay long enough to create a mess.

"They tore the reading charts off the walls and lit them in the middle of the room," said Spencer-Francis.

"The just ripped them down. I can only assume that they lit them so they could see what they were doing in the dark. They even left the matches on the ground, so when we got here, we had to clean it all up."

Huge difference

It's the loss of the nine computers which has most affected the teachers and students. A charity group had donated the Dell computers to the school only last year and, since then, they had been making a huge difference in the lives of the students.

"The children started coming to school very early, from about six in the morning, just so they could have some time to play around on the computer, or to have an early study session."

The computers were all loaded with GSAT study guides and reading programmes that were used to help the older students prepare for exams.

"The children are all from the community and come from homes with serious financial challenges. They don't have computers at home and have no access to them otherwise. The computers we had here was all they had, it was their only opportunity to learn what is becoming a basic skill," said Spencer-Francis.

The students, who are between six and 12 years old, have been struggling to accept the loss of the computers.

"The little ones ask us every day when the computers coming back," said Spencer Francis. "They don't understand why they can't go to use them like they did before."

But as the reality of the situation set in on the school community, the teachers there vowed to press on with renewed energy.

"We can either let this get us down, or we can decide to use it as an opportunity to achieve something better," said Spencer-Francis. "They stole the computers, but we are going to show them that even when they hurt us, when we use hard work, we can achieve despite all challenges."