Police have been called to investigate incidents involving school children in the heart of George Town’s tourism district each of the past two Friday afternoons.
The first case involved an attack on a Jordanian man in the alley behind Butterfield Bank off Main Street. The man was hospitalised after he was knocked unconscious by a blow to the head. No arrests have been made, but the victim told the Caymanian Compass his attackers were wearing high school uniforms.
The following weekend a group of 20-30 girls, some wearing school uniforms, were seen shouting insults and pushing one another outside Elizabethan Square. Police officers responded to break it up, but no arrests were made.
Both incidents were reported in the late afternoon between 4.30pm and 5pm and were witnessed by visitors and residents.
A Royal Cayman Islands Police sergeant who participates in George Town’s community policing efforts, Ian Yearwood, said hanging out around the Subway or near the Thompson and Butterfield Bank buildings is sort of a Friday afternoon tradition for John Gray and George Hicks students.
But Sergeant Yearwood said it’s not the way officers would like to see them spending their after school time, and he admits it has led to some problems in the past.
‘It’s not an everyday occurrence,’ Mr. Yearwood said. ‘A few times officers have been called to respond, it might have been an altercation between the kids, among themselves.’
He said the attack on the man in the alley on 1 June was ‘highly unusual.’
The gatherings of high school kids on Friday afternoons present a pickle for police. Sergeant Yearwood said RCIPS doesn’t want them hanging around and getting into trouble, but if they’re not doing anything wrong he said there’s nothing officers can do.
‘We normally, if we catch them congregating there, we usher them home,’ he said. ‘They will disappear…a few will go home; a few will wait and come back. We need help from the parents, because it’s not an offence to just walk around town.’
However, Mr. Yearwood acknowledges many parents aren’t at home Friday afternoons; particularly single parents, or those who have to work more than one job to make ends meet.
He encouraged parents and the schools to help get kids involved in after-school programmes like Key Club, the Cadet Corps, the Boy Scouts, the Girls Brigade, or Youth Flex.
‘I know it’s in the plans right now (for the Ministry of) Youth and Sports for some more after-school activities to be coming on stream very shortly,’ he said.
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