Implement robust safety protocols in schools

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The recent incident involving abduction of six-year-old student Anka Glasgow, who was taken from her school in Clarendon by a man who gained access to the school has highlighted the urgent need for schools to implement and review consistently robust security measures on school premises to ensure the safety of the students in their care.

Child abduction in our schools is not novel; we have faced similar challenges in the past. Fortunately, for Glasgow, she was found before she was seriously harmed. However, Danielle Rowe, an eight-year-old who was abducted from school in 2019, was not so fortunate; she was discovered with severe injuries and later succumbed to them. This tragedy resulted from a preventable security breach. In response, her school tightened its security and child pickup rules. Yet the measures were reactive, typical of how some schools handle crises. More troubling is that once the fear subsides, complacency sometimes returns. To be clear, this is not broad-brushing, but highlighting practices at some schools that lack consistency and proactive measures in their security protocols and fail to review them for potential breaches.

That said, the safety of children, particularly those in elementary schools, should not be left to schools; teachers are already overwhelmed, and additional security measures are costly. Parents must be involved in the process and partner with schools. They should establish communication channels with teachers, concerning who, when, and how the child will be picked up, and discuss security measures with their child. We should make every effort to prevent what happened to Anka Glasgow from happening again; our children should be our priority. They are our future; let us use all means to protect them.

ERROL MCLEISH

St Catherine

ermarlii16@hotmail.com