Students remove graffiti from bus

SEVEN Coleridge & Parry students felt the brunt of the school’s authority yesterday when they were made to clean a Transport Board bus they had vandalized.
A Transport Board official, along with the school principal and his team, supervised as the students scrubbed away the graffiti on the ceiling and sides of the bus.
Principal Vincent Fergusson told the media that after receiving word from the Transport Board of the students’ actions, the school carried out an immediate investigation.
Stressing that the school would not condone vandalism, especially of Government property, Fergusson said the punishment of his students was an “example and strong message” for others “to desist from destroying any school or Government property”.Fergusson said the punishment, an agreement between the Transport Board and the school, was mild compared to the alternative penalty of the students facing the law courts.
“We will not condone [vandalism]. We see it as a national issue. That is why we invited the Press to see the young students restoring the bus this morning.”“The parents were notified. They were so annoyed that [they said] their punishment would have been more severe than what we have done this morning. So they are onboard with us and we are very grateful for that,” Fergusson added.What was behind the students’ vandalizing of the bus?
“I think that it is because they are unsupervised. They are supervised here all day under rigid supervision, and then they have this sudden burst of freedom and they misbehave themselves,” the principal explained.
A Transport Board Press release stated that parents of the offending students were invited to the clean-up to reinforce the board’s stamping out vandalism, and indicated the media coverage should result in a reduction in the defacing of the board’s buses by students. (AH)