No talk, no chalk
Published:Thursday | April 14, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Teachers protest as student thieves target Charlie Smith
Nadisha Hunter, Staff Reporter
Empty desks and chairs were the order of the day at Charlie Smith High School in Trench Town, St Andrew, yesterday as classes were suspended to protest against thefts, which have been a plague on the school community.
It is alleged that students at the institution made off with one of the school's laptops last Wednesday and, according to principal Dr Dennis Kelly, it was not the first time such an incident was taking place.
Kelly said that from time to time, the staff have been victims of the criminal activity and it is time the school send a strong signal that such activity cannot be allowed at the school.
traumatised
Kelly said it was important that the equipment be returned, as it contains important information such as school-based assessments which could affect fifth-formers who have less than a month before they begin sitting the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations.
"We are really traumatised because, in fact, this is not just an isolated incident, it is part of a number of incidents that have occurred," he said.
"For a few weeks now, we have had incidents where students have taken teachers' belongings - phones, credit cards and so forth, and we have spoken strongly, but this incident has really brought things to a point where we have to make a statement to the students that this is not going to be tolerated and we are not going to be going along with business as usual under these conditions," the principal warned.
He added that the incident occurred during a short period as a teacher had only left the laptop in a classroom to get his lunch at the canteen and, on his return, the equipment was missing.
Kelly called for the Ministry of Education to put in place proper security measures to protect the school.
"The school will have to revisit its security issues and, very importantly, we need some attention to our perimeter fence. For quite some time now, the ministry has promised to help us and I feel if the perimeter fence was at a stage of readiness, persons would less likely be able to move articles off the compound," he lamented.
School will resume today, but in the meantime, the principal said the police would continue to investigate the matter.