Teachers at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School returned to their classrooms on Tuesday morning, September 27, but the chilling stories they told of scary acts of violence that forced them to temporarily withhold their services linger on in the minds of many persons.

Teachers at one of their meetings drawing up proposals for Government

It all reached a breaking point on Thursday, September 22, when fighting broke out at the school again: a student received several stab wounds and cuts, the safety of the children and teachers was in jeopardy and police rushed to the premises some wearing bullet-proof vests. The school was closed and students were sent home.

The stories of violence over a period of time were told at meetings involving teachers, the student council, government ministers, other officials and parents. Persons at the meetings heard about cutlasses being thrown over the high school-wall at the back to escape security and to be used later in attacks; of stabbings with knives; rocks being thrown into classrooms and on the outside with bullying students having a field time fighting other children and threatening and actually assaulting teachers. It was noted that during security checks, some male students jumped over the low picket fence at the front of the school. It was also alleged that boys had passed weapons to female students who were not being searched. The stories also told of fearful students calling on teachers to lock them in the laboratory and other areas of the school to escape hurt. One teacher recalled her son being a victim of attacks which started at the school and spilled over in the community and how he lost consciousness twice on the operating table at the hospital while being treated for stab wounds.

Some teachers wept silently as they put their case to Government Ministers and officials on Friday, September 23 at the Teachers’ Resource Centre. Dwayne Adams, one of the teachers, summed up their feelings in one sentence: “By God, we can’t take the violence anymore!” That meeting, chaired by the Principal, Darwin Hazel, was attended by Government Ministers Victor Banks and Kenneth Harrigan, Attorney General, Ronald Scipio, Acting Deputy Governor, Stanley Reid, and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Orris Proctor, in the absence of Minister Evans Rogers.

Student Council: L-R: Khamal Harding-Hodge, Keivelle Lake, Nakishma Rogers and Kyle Kentish

The teachers presented a number of proposals, to improve the safety of the school, which were discussed in detail later in the day between a representative group of teachers and the Government Ministers and other officials at the Executive Council. The proposals included the following:

Regulations concerning compulsory education for all children under age 17 must be amended to exclude from the school those who exhibit violent and disruptive behaviour; serious penalties must be meted out to students who commit serious offences; teachers will not return to classes until temporary alternate education programmes outside the parameters of the school are made available for such students in expectation of the construction of a proper place of accommodation; barbed wire be put on all walls of the school except the front wall; walk through metal detector systems be installed at the main gates of both campuses to scan all students; in the meantime a female security officer be permitted to search female students; school gates should be made higher to prevent students from climbing over them; security cameras operated by security officers be installed to monitor students’ behaviour; additional security to better ensure that the entire campus is patrolled and not just the front gate.

Cross section of attendees at Monday’s meeting on the grounds of the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School

Other proposals were that: laws and policies should be amended to expel students on their first offence using a weapon; some power of expulsion should be placed in the hands of the school; a juvenile centre is established for the reform of those students who exhibit unsociable and deviant behaviour and those found guilty in court; a public address system must be established in all classrooms; establishment of an industrial training school with the appropriate security systems and reform programmes to provide suitable education for these students; financing to cover costs of installing water fountains on campus; sufficient staff at the beginning of each school year to ensure that students are not let unattended to roam the campus and start mischief; legal or financial penalties for parents who repeatedly fail to attend Parent/Teachers Association meetings; legal or financial penalties for parents whose children are consistently late or absent without valid reason; and that legal and financial penalties are more easily brought against parents of violent children.

A statement issued afterwards by Public Relations Officer, Curtis Richardson, said Government expressed the view that there was no quick fix to all the proposals submitted. The Government nevertheless committed itself to several immediate, short-term and long-term initiatives.

Cross section of attendees at Monday’s meeting on the grounds of the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School

On Monday, September 26, the Government Ministers and other officials attended a meeting on the grounds of the school called by members of the Student Council to inform them and parents of their concerns for the safety and welfare of the majority of the responsible student body. They also questioned the Ministers on the discussions and agreements with the teachers.

Mr. Victor Banks informed the Student Council and others at the mass meeting that Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming had written a letter to the Principal and Staff of the school setting out the following:

Weapons in the school 2000

As a short-term measure, the Ministry of Education will meet immediately with a representative group of teachers to establish a system of special education, away from the existing campuses, for those students deemed by the school to be behaviourally disturbed; the Ministry will work expeditiously with the representative group of teachers to establish an alternative system of education for secondary school students with behavioural problems; two additional security guards, one being a female, will be employed at each of the two campuses. Until arrangements can be completed for the additional guards, officers of the Anguilla Police Force will provide additional security; police officers will make more frequent patrols of the campuses of the school; barbed wire will be attached to that portion of the wall which at present does not have barbed wire attached; the height of the front wall along the main road will be raised; and the other proposals will be addressed in a timely manner.

The Student Council bitterly complained that the majority of students were suffering from the high walls which gave them a sense of imprisonment; that there was a need for Government to improve the conditions of the school to make them more comfortable before finding an alternate place to accommodate the wayward children.

The Student Council members called for their expulsion and said the majority of the students were suffering for the minority. Teachers, students and parents hailed the stand taken by the student councillors. Mr. Banks as well as the Minister of Education, Evans Rogers, who came back from an overseas meeting to help deal with the situation, said they shared the concerns of the Student Council, but that Government had a responsibility to look after the social needs of the misbehaving children.

Weapons in the school September 2005

The Student Council leaders who participated in the meeting were Khamal Harding-Hodge, President; Nakishma Rogers, Vice President; Keivelle Lake, General Secretary; and Kyle Kentish, Secretary/Treasurer.

There were between 28 and 31 students listed for removal from the school. That number is now 21 and letters have already been written to the parents and guardians.

Meanwhile, the Anguilla Teachers Union issued the following release: “The ATU would like to applaud the great solidarity that the principal and staff of the ALHCS displayed in reaching their goals of dealing with the acts of violence at the school. Those were achieved because we were all strongly united and spoke with one voice.

“We also acknowledge the decisive leadership displayed by the government officials. The deliberations were handled in a swift and tactical manner. A number of demands made by the teachers were addressed. The teachers were given written assurance that their demands will be addressed in a timely manner.”

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