Petrina Francis, Education Reporter
After school at Penwood high School, students and teachers go about their business. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
ALL IS not well at Penwood. The high school, located in a St. Andrew inner-city community, with a population of approximately 850 students, has seen more than its fair share of troubles. Conflicts and fights between students and teachers and teachers and teachers, erupt regularly even as they struggle to get through a term's curriculum.
Today, a grade 11 boy is before the court for allegedly stabbing another male student in his neck. And the principal and a teacher are also in a court battle over a fighting incident.
On Friday, as The Sunday Gleaner news team walked through Penwood, the physical facility seemed to underline the disharmony in the relationships among its inhabitants. Missing window louvres, leaking roofs and deplorable bathroom conditions are only some of the issues that students at the institution have to contend with on a daily basis.
STUDENTS STILL
LOVE THEIR SCHOOL
Notwithstanding the conditions and the fisticuffs, the students say they love their school.
"I love my school but if ah come to school late, it's a problem to get a desk and chair," one grade 11 student told The Sunday Gleaner. "Wi learn because wi have good teachers but the bathrooms are not in a good condition and sometimes when de rain fall wi caan have class because the roof a leak," he added. The 17-year-old also noted that the violence in the area sometimes prevent them from going to school.
As the news team observed scores of students hustling and bustling to get home after classes on Friday, shrieks of laughter filled the air. Vendors on the school compound were doing brisk business, selling sweets and other confectioneries. A group of students were sweating on a netball court while their fellow schoolmates stood on the sidelines and watched.
NOT WHAT IT SEEMS
For the outsider looking in, all seems well at Penwood, but science teacher Loanna Carty said this is not so. The school she noted, has had several internal conflicts over the years.
The most recent occurred two Thursdays ago when a grade 11 boy stabbed another male student in his neck. The student is now hospitalised while the other boy was arrested and charged with wounding with intent. According to Corporal Devon William, who is attached to the Constabulary Communications Network, the fight started in the school yard about 1:50 p.m. He was unable to say what the boys were fighting over.
But the biggest fight at the school occurred last year October between Mrs. Carty and the principal Austin Burrell.
