Hon Minister of Education Colin Riley
The Hon Minister of Education Colin Riley says he is planning to continue taking decisive steps to end violence at the Montserrat Secondary School. This, as a result one of the wounding incidents that attracted the attention of the Royal Montserrat Police Service (RMPS) within the last two weeks.
The incident at the MSS involved a 14-year-old boy being treated at the St. John’s hospital for stab wombs allegedly inflicted by a 17 –year-old student who was arrested and charged for causing grievous bodily harm. As could be expected there were several witnesses to the incident but the police maintains that the investigation is ongoing sending out the usual, “anyone with any information relating to this incident should contact”, the police service.
The 17-year-old student appeared before magistrate on the charge, was granted conditional bail. Meanwhile it was reported that the condition of the 14-year-old victim was improving steadily.
Montserrat Secondary School, Salem
Minister Riley told ZJB news, “…unfortunate incidents at the school … not something we’re proud about. We continue to provide the best security we can for the students, but it seems as if there’s an emerging pattern of interpersonal conflict that tends to get out of control. We have a security officer on the compound and we are working with the principal and the school leadership team to ensure that over time there’s adult leadership among the students groups so you don’t just have students walking around the compound unmonitored…”
“I believe in the positive engagement in having parts of intervention for adult working with students in a way where you can influence them positively so we would like to see a resurgent of our sports programs of our after school activities even those that are not funded by government,” the Minister concluded.
