Schools throughout the country will open their doors to thousands of students today as the 2014/2015 academic year begins and with the many acts of violence among the country’s youth; Police Superintendent Stephen Dean assured that police officers will do everything they can to promote a safe school year for student and teachers.
For this reason, Supt. Dean said that police presence will remain on school campuses this year.
“There are officers assigned to the majority of our secondary schools and they will be active, they will continue to do the good job that they are doing, additionally with the patrols form the division and our saturated patrols,” he said.
“Every time we revaluate our strategies, so there is some tweaking but the focus will remain the same, we work in collaboration with the school administrators, the teachers and the securities at the school, all of us are on one page, we don’t work in isolation so we judge each case, so if there is a problematic school we look at how to enhance security. For the most part things have been going pretty good last year with the school violence and we want to keep that way.”
Supt. Dean assured that police officers will be out in full force to promote safety on school campuses, he also ushered a warning to students and urged parents to responsibly contribute towards curbing youth violence.
“Research has indicated that where parents take an interesting role in the children’s education, that’s going to the Parenting Teachers Association (PTA) meetings – these children are less likely to get involved in criminal and deviant activities,” he said.
“We will not be tolerating parents threatening teachers, parents going on school campuses fighting with teachers – that’s a zero tolerance approach to that. We will spare no efforts, we will make sure that we have all of the resources out there to ensure that students be safe this year student we will not be tolerating you carrying knifes or any offensive weapons to school this year, any drugs – if your being bullied, if your being attacked, we want you to report it to a responsible adult, let your parents know, let your teachers know, do not take it into your own hands.”
Supt. Dean said as much during a press conference on Sunday in an effort to provide back to school tips for the public.
Assistant Superintendent and Officer in Charge of the Police Traffic Department Craig Stubbs said that officers will combed the streets this week to enforce law and order given the inevitable increase in traffic and countless violations.
ASP Stubbs encouraged parents exercise time management and to pull to the side of the road for school drop offs and pick-ups in an effort to protect the safety of their child and avoid the stall in traffic motion.
He also urged motorist to avoid stopping on the pedestrian crossing, especially in school zone areas.
An officer attached the Road Traffic Department, Sergeant Garland Rolle encouraged motorist to always wear their seat belts and for parents to ensure that children are placed in safety seats.
Officers reportedly cited some 2,000 seat belt violations in the last year.
He went on to remind road users to drive at a speed limit of 15 miles per hour from 7:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. while in school zone areas.
He added that children ages five to seven years must be accompanied by an adult on their walk to school.
