Policing schools with guns

When schools open for the 2025-2026 academic year, there will be some changes implemented by the government.

According to Education Minister Dr Michael Dowlath, 246 schools have completed the full scope of repairs planned during the two-month vacation in Trinidad, with another 25 said to be in the final phases of upgrades a week ago.

The status of the remaining eight government and government-assisted schools targeted during the vacation-repair programme was not revealed.

In Tobago, 26 of the island's 57 schools were targeted for remedial work.

As many as 12 of them were not touched, according to TTUTA Tobago officer Bradon Roberts.

By the end of September, the phased distribution of 18,000 laptops for first form students will begin.

The first term also marks the start of a new school discipline initiative – the assignment of 95 special reserve police (SRP) officers in the school system.

MTS guards, the standard security officers at schools, were also trained. What is their role in this initiative?

According to Dr Dowlath, two officers would be stationed at 50 high-risk schools while ten secondary schools and ten primary schools will be covered by regular patrols.

In a press release, the Estate Police Association acknowledged the presence of gangs in schools, drug activity and school violence, but emphasised that the presence of officers in schools cannot be a long-term solution to the problem of school indiscipline.

TTUTA president Martin Lum Kin acknowledged the challenges in the school system, agreed to a short-term trial of a non-lethal plan, noting a violent ambush of security guards at Malick Secondary School on June 6.

Officers on duty in schools will need to adhere to the laws that govern the treatment of children, which are necessarily nuanced under the Children's Act and the Judges Rules.

Former education minister Nyan Gadsby-Dolly called for officers to be "properly supported and their efforts complemented by trained professionals such as social workers and guidance counsellors."

The early announcement that officers would carry non-lethal weapons was promising; not so the revelation that some officers would be in "full kit," that is, including a loaded gun.

The schools to be gifted with officers carrying deadly weapons was said to be according to an operational assessment.

But a school is not a drug block or hotspot for gun violence.

There seems no sensible reason why an officer should be in full kit.

Treating the school system like an extreme crime zone seems a quick way to turn them into crime zones.

If a trained police officer can't effectively subdue or de-escalate a situation involving a knife, the most common deadly weapon used in schools, questions need to be asked of the officer as well as the child.

"Operational assessments" are a fuzzy catch-all for deploying lethally armed police in a school environment and it demands greater clarity; or better yet, a rethinking of the entire plan.