Michelle Jones
Education Writer
SECURITY at Spes Bona High School in Athlone will be stepped up after a matric pupil had been shot dead on the school’s premises in what other pupils said was a gang-related attack.
Following Wednesday morning’s incident in which 17-year-old Glenrico Martins was shot in the head by men dressed in school uniforms, about half of Spes Bona High pupils stayed away from school yesterday amid concerns from parents for their safety.
Education MEC Donald Grant and his Community Safety counterpart Dan Plato visited the school yesterday to meet Spes Bona principal Abu Solomon, police and education officials.
Grant’s spokeswoman, Bronagh Casey, said a number of security improvements were agreed upon at the meeting.
These include:
l Increased police patrols during school hours.
l Increased police visibility before and after school when learners travelled.
l Random police visits to the school.
l Search and seizures.
l Meetings with parents and pupils.
Solomon had informed the meeting that about half of the pupils were absent yesterday, Casey said.
“MEC Grant urges learners to return to the school. SAPS have increased patrols around the school to ensure school safety. The police are currently investigating the incident and have made some significant progress,” she said.
Casey said Spes Bona has security systems, including CCTV, metal detectors, security gates and alarms and had implemented a well-developed safety plan.
“There are ‘safety officers’ (Bambanani officers) also situated at the school.
“Safe Schools has supported the school in improving the security infrastructure, as well as providing support to the school in terms of counselling and liaison with the police,” she said.
Western Cape Community Policing Forum chairman Hanif Loonat said a multi-pronged approach to school safety was urgent. He suggested that pupils be made to go into the school the minute they were dropped off and that parents searched bags to ensure pupils did not carry weapons to school.
“We can’t expect them to go to school with the knowledge that they become targets,” he said.
Police spokesman Frederick van Wyk said two suspects were arrested during a search on Wednesday, but could not yet be linked to Martins’ murder.
Casey said Wednesday’s attack was the second shooting on school premises this year after another shooting at WD Hendricks Primary in Kensington.
“A learner was shot in the thigh by a stray bullet as a result of gang violence in the area,” she said about the Kensington incident.
In other incidents two other pupils had been wounded during shooting outside school grounds, Casey said. “In most cases, learners were shot outside the school premises in gang-related incidents where learners had been caught in crossfire.”
She said 12 pupils had been shot last year, all of which had happened off school grounds. Three of the pupils had died.