Education officials in Grand Bahama want to increase the number of truancy officers to deal with high school students who skip classes.
According to Sandra Edgecombe, the Ministry of Education’s District Superintendent for Freeport, the problem of truancy is widespread in areas across the island.
She said many of the students who skip classes frequent downtown Freeport.
“I know that in case of Eight Mile Rock, the fence had been down from the hurricanes-or there were not enough security officers to man the various exit points and so coming to the Freeport district, it’s the same problem,” Ms. Edgecombe said.
Some merchants who have adopted a no-shopping-allowed-for-students policy before 3pm, also said the downtown area seems to be the popular place for students to frequent because it is a central location and it has the shops and the bus and taxi depot.
“They do come here during school hours and I would ask them, ‘What are you doing out of school?’ and they would say, ‘We don’t have a teacher or we’re doing course work so we’re out, or we missed the bus’,” said Doris Fitzgerald, who owns a clothing store.
“But it’s very hard to talk to the young people today because sometimes they get really nasty and belligerent when you ask them [questions].”
Other merchants said fights sometimes break out among students playing hooky.
“They come downtown during school hours; they fight; they come into the store and fool around with the clothes, but [they’re] not really shopping, so that’s why we had the sign on the door saying, ‘no students shopping here from 9am to 4pm,” store clerk, Ethelyn Johnson, said.
Another store clerk, Dwayne Kemp, also said there have been fights in the area, but he said police presence has helped the situation.
“The Royal Bahamas Police Force and the security [officers] working along with the schools did a good turnaround in seeing that the kids stop from playing hooky or [get into] fights downtown,” Mr. Kemp said.
Mrs. Edgecombe believes it would take a community effort to adequately address the problem of truancy.
“The parents and persons in the community, whether you’re a bus driver, shopper downtown, a local vendor, we all have a responsibility when we see our children out during school time and we are aware that school is not out,” she said.
“[We should] stop and ask questions and contact the schools.”
She said she is also available for such calls.
There is reportedly only one truancy officer in Grand Bahama.
However, Chief Clinical Psychologist in the Ministry of Education Dr. Pamula Mills, whose department is responsible for truancy officers, told the Bahama Journal that officials were in the process of recruiting two additional officers for the next school year.
She said the department wants to have four truancy officers available because there is a great need for them.
By: Courtnee Romer, The Bahama Journal
