‘WE HAVE TO BE KIND’

Police implore students to end bullyism during Read Across Jamaica Day activities

SCORES OF Grange Hill Primary School students were briefed and exposed to practical ways of eradicating bullyism in schools by police officers and members of the civilian community during their Read Across Jamaica Day presentation at the Westmoreland-based institution yesterday.

Read Across Jamaica Day is an initiative that is observed islandwide that aims to encourage students to develop a healthy habit for reading.

Assistant Superintendent Jordaine Allen, who has management responsibilities for Zone two of the Westmoreland Police Division that covers the Morgan Bridge Police Station in Grange Hill and Frome Police Station, told students to find others way to peacefully engage schoolmates and those living in their communities instead of bullying, harrying, or doing things that cause others to feel intimidated.

“We know that bullyism exists in our schools and we have to find strategies to solve the practice,” Allen said while reading to the students during yesterday’s Read Across Jamaica Day activities at the school.

“We have to be kind, we have to show a little empathy, show them a different way,” he emphasised.

Allen was accompanied by Deputy Superintendent of Police Merna Ferguson-Campbell, chairperson of the Westmoreland Police Civic Oversight Committee Christine Green, and other members of the committee and the Rotary Club of Savanna-la-Mar who took turn to read to the students.

Allen read the story titled ‘Billy the Bully’, written by Kelly Magnus, to the grade four students, after which he told them that in order to end bullyism in schools they should show empathy for others.

Speaking with The Gleaner, Allen said the police saw this national event as a perfect platform to interact with students in this age group and to remind them that the police are their friends.

“We use this opportunity to remind the students that the police are their friends and they should feel free to communicate and interact at all times,” said Allen.

He said given what has been happening within the Grange Hill space, the police partnered with the Rotary Club of Savanna-la-Mar and the Westmoreland Police Civic Committee and chose Grange Hill Primary to celebrate Read Across Jamaica Day.

Principal Clayton Smith was delighted to have the police reading to the children, especially as they are operating in a tense environment following several bouts of shootings in the Grange Hill area.

In March approximately 1,700 students were affected when classes at both Grange Hill Primary and Grange Hill High schools were suspended following an alleged threat to shoot up the primary school.

And on April 16-year-old Carson Barrett, a grade 10 student, and another female student of Grange Hill High were involved in a deadly shooting by gangsters.

Barrett was shot and killed on the Belle Isle Road while walking home from school and his female schoolmate was shot and injured.

“We had never had the police coming in to give this kind of support, so now with all that is happening in Grange Hill it is very important that the police are seen as somebody who can help to make that change,” Smith told The Gleaner.

The principal shared that reading to the children through the combined efforts of the police and the civilian community has shown the children that they don’t have to get involved in wrongdoing, instead they can learn to read and seek help from the police.

“The story that the officer read was very interesting, because it gave several inputs as to how they can change somebody from being a bully to being a friend,” Smith added.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS J Wray & Nephew (JWN) employee volunteers Dahlia Martin (left) and Shenice Campbell (right) with gleeful students from the GimmeMi-Bit Primary School in Clarendon yesterday. The students were treated to a reading sessions by the JWN Foundation staffers featuring the ‘I am a Promise’ book co-authored by Jamaican Olympian Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

Philanthropist Janet Silvera tickles ‘pink’ young Christina Elliott (left) of Holy Trinity Basic School while her classmate Jeraldo Gayle enjoys the moment. Silvera was one of three women invited by the Bob Marley Foundation to ‘Read Across Jamaica’ at the Tuff Gong studios in Kingston yesterday morning. She read Cedella Marley’s adaptation of Bob Marley’s ‘Get Up, Stand Up’, which discourages bullying.

CONTRIBUTED BY RICHARD PERKINS CHASE Fund staff member, Tricia Redwood, reads to students at the St. Michael’s Infant School, Tower Street, Kingston for Read Across Jamaica Day yesterday. Read Across Jamaica Day is an initiative that is observed islandwide that aims to encourage students to develop a healthy habit for reading. The CHASE Fund places strategic emphasis on Early Childhood Education. The Fund has built, upgraded and equipped early childhood institutions and resource centres; supported the development of early childhood materials to enhance the cognitive development of children; provided scholarships for specialist training in Early Childhood Education; and expanded the use of radio and televisions programmes to enrich and support the curriculum.

ANTOINE LODGE/PHOTOGRAPHER Senior Superintendent of Police Stephanie Lindsay, head of the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Corporate Communications Unit, reading to students of St Joseph’s Infant School in Kingston on Read Across Jamaica Day, which was recognised yesterday.

PHOTO BY HERBERT MCKENIS Commanding Officer of Zone Two of the Westmoreland Police Division, Assistant Superintendent Jordaine Allen (centre), reading to students at Grange Hill Primary School in Westmoreland on Read Across Jamaica Day yesterday. Giving support are Clayton Smith (left), principal of Grange Hill Primary School and Christine Green, a member of the Rotary Club of Savanna-la-Mar and chairperson for the Westmoreland Police Civic Committee.