Jamaican Teachers May Get Police Powers

Three high school kids in Jamaica have been murdered on campus since January. The most recent was last week. In a bid to get the country’s schools under control, cell phones have been banned and searches for weapons are commonplace. Education Minister Andrew Holness has also offered up an interesting idea, namely, having teachers apply to be district constables with all the police power that goes with the job.

The minister hopes to capitalize on the teachers’ greater knowledge of the kids and the situation in the school. The police have far less simply because they aren’t in the schools all the time; they have to patrol other places as well. Jamaica has a big crime problem. As for the police school resources officers, they are just spread too thin to be as effective as they need to be according to the minister.

Ena Barclay, chief of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, said her 20,000 members wanted to hear more about the proposal, but the fact that the union didn’t reject the idea out of hand is a sign of how tough things are. Ms. Barclay says that the teachers are very concerned about school violence (and as they are in the line of fire, they should be).

The minister told The Jamaica Gleaner, “We discuss things and then engage stakeholders before making any statements. We have not yet reached the stage of policy.” He added, “The idea was to have them (the teachers) being proactive, dealing with gang formation and gathering information, and so on. They would not be walking around the schools with firearms.”

The paper also ran an editorial against the proposal, “However you spin it, police are police and the powers of special constables to arrest are clearly spelled out in the law as well as used in everyday practice in Jamaica. The police force is mandated to maintain law and order, using their powers to search and arrest when they deem appropriate. What this new step means, therefore, is that a new front is being opened by the Government for police operations to be an everyday experience within the daily lives of our students as an integral part of their educational development.”

This is not an easy argument to answer, and the Gleaner has the sympathy of this journal. At the same time, three dead in high schools in less than three months is not easy either. The minister’s proposal deserves to be kicked around a bit more to see if it is possible to reconcile the position of the Gleaner with the situation in the schools.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Kensington Review Home