Thieves rob Greenbay Primary and community’s children of food and sports donations worth thousands, Lewis laments
Senator Richard Lewis is disheartened that Greenbay Primary students are being disadvantaged by the thieves who broke into the school overnight, September 12-13, and stole a quantity of items.
Reports say the school’s administration block was breached and ransacked, and thousands of dollars worth of items –recently received for the breakfast and sports programmes – were stolen.
The perpetrators reportedly pounded the lock off the metal door leading to the building, then ransacked the space, scattering and strewing documents and other items onto the floor and over a desk.
Lewis, the United Progressive Party (UPP) Candidate for St. John’s Rural West and a benefactor to the school, says that local donors and those in the Diaspora are losing patience. He notes that members of staff are also fatigued by the constant break-ins.
Accordingly, the Senator is calling on members of the public to “please help” in bringing the perpetrators to justice and recovering the stolen items. He is also asking residents to be wary of persons seeking to sell certain goods, which could have come from the looted school.
Lewis notes that civilian security is provided at the school only between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily. However, no arrangements are in place for security coverage at nigh, although the school has suffered several burglaries in recent years.
Therefore, he says the Rural West community must come together and form a Neighborhood School Watch to prevent further incidents of this nature, which rob the children of a proper education.
In the meantime, former Prime Minister Dr. Baldwin Spencer is commiserating with the staff and students of his alma mater after seeing their loss and the disruption to the operations.
This is not the only school to be targeted by thieves in recent times. Quite a number of government-run and private institutions have been burglarized these past several months.
This prompted the Cabinet, two weeks ago, to promise that each compound would have the presence of an actual security officer at all 37 public schools across the country.
The Executive also agreed that the government will install security cameras on the perimeter of school buildings and within certain offices that are attractive to thieves.
The proposal of building strong-rooms, or large safes, on the compounds, where highly valuable items could be stored, was also accepted.