NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Amid calls from parents and guardians at Government High School (GHS) for increased police presence and additional security measures, Minister of Education Jeffrey Lloyd said the fatal stabbing of one student, and injury of another, was deeply saddening, but stressed that schools in The Bahamas remain safe for students.
A grade 11 GHS student was stabbed to death in the corridor of the school campus, and another was injured following an altercation with two other two students during their lunch break.
Between 200 and 300 grade 11 students were on the campus to sit exams.
Grade 12 students are expected to sit exams tomorrow, though education officials said the “administration will make decisions around how they will proceed”.
“Our schools are very safe,” Lloyd said in response to suggestions from several concerned parents that schools have become unsafe for their children.
“It is a mantra and mandate of us here at this ministry to ensure the safety of our schools for students, our teachers and our administrators, and our staff, and all those who come on.
“Obviously, this is unfortunate, but I wish parents and I wish the Bahamian people to know that our schools are very safe and incidents of this kind are not a usual occurrence.
“We do everything that we can, including the involvement of police, on our campuses.
“We are very well equipped with security officers throughout our various schools, not only in the daytime but over the course of the day, the evenings and in the nighttime.”
The minister made a similar statement in February 2019 following the stabbing of a student at CC Sweeting Senior High School.
Lloyd addressed the media along with police, school and education officials outside the campus around 2.30pm — just over an hour after the stabbing incident.
“This is very, very sad indeed,” Lloyd said.
“It’s just unfortunate, tragic in fact. I was advised on the way from a lunch break in Cabinet that there had been a stabbing here and I came immediately and so did our executive team, including the permanent secretary and the director, and undersecretary, to investigate and find out exactly what happened.”
The minister said it was unfortunate that the believed perpetrators of the stabbing managed to escape the campus.
Counseling will be provided to students, according to Director of Education Marcellus Taylor.
“Deadly upset”
Asked when students would be released from the school as dozens of parents eagerly awaited word from their children, Lloyd said: “Of course, people are upset and I can understand it. We are upset. We are deadly upset about what has transpired, but at the same time, we have hundreds of students in there who are taking exams, have taken their exams, that we also have to ensure their safety, so we’re going to do it in a proper and right way.
“It is a terrible situation.
“We are deeply, deeply saddened by this turn of events right in the middle of examinations when students presumably would be focused on taking their end-of-term as well as their national exams and preparing themselves for their eventual movement, in this instance, to grade 12, especially in consideration of the challenges that we have had with the conduct of examinations.”
He continued: “We are deeply, deeply hurt by the events of today.”
Students were eventually released shortly before 3pm.
Joining parents outside the main entrance gate, former Tall Pines MP Leslie Miller said the killing was a “disgrace” and called for the country to “do better”.
He asked: “What’s going to happen next? Teacher ga’ kill teacher? What’s going to happen next? We can do better than this, man. As a people, we can do better than this. Do you know how a parent feels?
“Somebody is going to call them on a telephone and say ‘your child died’. And you come here and the parents can’t go inside because you have to wait for the minister and those to say what they’ve got to say.
“But that’s a child that has lost his life and the other one is in critical condition in hospital.”
