The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

IN the wake of the fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old Doris Johnson Senior High School student last week, Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald told the House of Assembly that the incident exposed the need for more police presence on the streets of New Providence.

Adonai Wilson was killed after school last Wednesday. He was reportedly walking with friends to the recently opened Popeyes restaurant when he was attacked.

The Tribune understands that tension had been brewing for sometime at the school before the fatal incident occurred.

Calling last Wednesday a “tragic day in the Bahamas,” Mr Fitzgerald said most school fights don’t take place on campuses but happen before or after school away from school grounds.

He cited a study of College of the Bahamas (COB) Professor Dr William Fielding, which indicated that school policing in the country has been successful.

“As you can see, there needs to be a renewed focus and the same attention that was given to make our schools safer for our children needs to be given to ensure that they feel safe outside of school as well,” he said.

“Last week’s tragic incident has undoubtedly brought into focus the need to increase security and police presence on the streets between the hours of 2.30pm and 5pm on school days.”

Mr Fitzgerald also pledged to address concerns about verbal abuse and violence towards teachers, saying he will meet with the Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT) and Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade to address this and other school violence matters.

For his part, Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell said he visited public schools in his constituency last week to deliver the message that their generation is not lost, despite the acts of a few.

“In our constituency, as I suspect throughout the country, there is a profound re-examination and soul searching of what we can do to avoid this kind of tragedy from happening again,” Mr Mitchell said.

“Urgent action of some kind is needed and one suspects that going forward, that society will respond to allocate the resources needed to tackle this problem.”