By ANDREA DOWNER, Staff ReporterMURDER, RAPE, GANGS, violence and fear are words that conjure up very disturbing images. However, those words have personal relevance to a number of students of the Bridgeport High School in Portmore, St. Catherine, their families and quite possibly, the school's administration.
Those ugly words have become part of their daily reality and recurring nightmares. Murder has personal significance for the family of 16-year-old Lamar Campbell, who was stabbed to death on the school's compound last Friday. They are also angry at the school's administration. They claim that the administration's negligence somehow contributed to Lamar's death as they did not act quickly enough to get Lamar medical attention after he was stabbed. Eric Campbell, Lamar's father, told THE WEEKEND STAR that he will be taking legal action against the school.
But Sam Green, chairman of the school board, told THE WEEKEND STAR that with the exception of one male teacher at the main gate, none of the faculty members saw when the student was stabbed. He said the male teacher assisted a parent and other students to place Lamar in her car so that he could be taken to hospital.
Based on reports from the Bridgeport police, two female students of the school are still coping with the ordeal of being raped by bus conductors in February after they arrived late for school one morning and were denied entry to the school compound in keeping with a 'lock-out' policy that a member of the school board told THE WEEKEND STAR has been in effect at the school and at other educational institutions since "time immemorial."
The Bridgeport police also confirmed the presence of two established gangs at the school. One of the gangs, 100 Man Crew, as the name suggests, is 100 strong and its members are mostly boys from the upper grades, though some girls are among their ranks.
The other, the Weedie Crew, was formed by students from the lower grades as a defence against the constant assault of the 100-Man crew in the hope that they would find safety in numbers.
Inspector Lloyd Brooks of the Bridgeport Police Station told THE WEEKEND STAR that the police learnt of the presence of the gangs at the school during a seven-hour meeting with the principal, Aston Messam, and members of the school board on Monday of this week, following last Friday's murder at the school.
Threatened
Also, in the wake of last Friday's murder, fear had Aston Messam, students and their parents firmly in its clutches. Messam told parents at at a press conference at the school on Monday that his life has been threatened.
He said he was physically and verbally abused by a group of persons at the Spanish Town Hospital when he visited the hospital shortly after Lamar was taken there. "I was attacked by a group of persons, some of whom threw stones at me and pointed their fingers in my face," he said.
Sam Green told THE WEEKEND STAR that Messam was also threatened by a student who attends Bridgeport High.
There are also indications that a stabbing incident last week is the culmination of a number of other violent confrontations between students and faculty members and a general breakdown of discipline at the school over a number of years.
Inspector Brooks also disclosed that police confiscated an imitation firearm, a knife, and a small quantity of ganja from students who were searched on the school's compound on Monday.
He said the police presence at the school has been increased from one to five police officers, who patrol the grounds throughout the day conducting spot checks for offensive weapons and other contraband in the hope of disarming and disintegrating the gangs.
Violence is also part of the deadly mix that that students of Bridgeport High are engaged in concocting on an almost daily basis even while they attempt to learn.
The Bridgeport police told THE WEEKEND STAR that a female student was stabbed at the school earlier this year during a fight with another female student, a security guard was stabbed in his hand last Wednesday by a male student and there are numerous reports of daily run-ins between and amongst gang members as well as faculty members.
A police officer at the station told THE WEEKEND STAR that over 30 students who had arrived late for school and were locked out, visited the police station one morning earlier this year and begged him to talk to the school's principal in order to allow them into the school. He said that students who get to school late and are locked out have been visiting the station on a regular basis in smaller groups of five etc. to ask the police to assist them in getting them into the school.
The officer said he was unable to talk to the principal despite making several calls to the school even though he identified himself as a police officer. "I was always told that he was in a meeting," the officer told THE WEEKEND STAR.
The concerned police officer said he was only able to meet with the principal after the female student was stabbed, but at the that time, he only dealt with the issue of the stabbing. The officer said he has had to talk to students on a number of occasions regarding their behaviour while waiting for transportation to go home and indicated that the school is plagued with a plethora of problems with indiscipline high on the list.
"That school is a time bomb waiting to explode," he predicted.
