Oh no!

As Minster of Education Ronald Jones sounds an emphatic ‘no’ to metal detectors in schools, a Bridgetown magistrate is calling for stiffer penalties for offences committed on school compounds.

The comments come in the wake of a cutlass attack on two Ellerslie Secondary students at the school’s canteen last Wednesday, which left two boys chopped, one seriously, and a 15- and a 16-year-old remanded – the 15-year-old to the Government Industrial School and the other to HMP Dodds.

“No,” declared Jones on Saturday, when he was asked if in light of that incident, the time had come for metal detectors to be installed in schools.

He refused to answer any further questions but noted he would be visiting Ellerslie School this morning to officially launch the school’s Sixth Form.

But Magistrate Graveney Bannister, who dealt with the charges against the two Ellerslie boys in the Bridgetown Traffic Court on Saturday, said increased penalties needed to be legislated for those who carried weapons onto school premises. (HLE)

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