Parents’ Alliance Jamaica (PAJ) has requested the implementation of state-owned transportation for students following the kidnapping and subsequent murder of eight-year-old Danielle Rowe from her school in Portmore, St. Catherine last Thursday.
The PAJ said parents connected to its network are also demanding that there be standardised and funded security protocols and systems across state schools, mandatory CCTV coverage of the parameters around state schools, and the provision of tracking and monitoring devices for students in special cases.
The president of the Alliance, George Goode, has questioned how an eight year old was able to leave her school premises in the company of her abductors. Danielle was abducted from the Braeton Primary and Infant School in St Catherine, and was later found in Vineyard Town with her throat slashed. She succumbed to her injuries at hospital on Saturday.
“It is imperative that we understand the circumstances surrounding this incident to ensure the safety and security of all students and to prevent any possibility of this recurring,” he said.
Goode, who is also the principal of a primary school in St. Catherine, said that “parents must be able to trust the systems that are in place to protect their children when they are under the supervision of the state.”
According to Goode, “serious questions must be asked when these systems fail, and corrective steps become extremely necessary when the failure leads to callous trauma for a child and the loss of her innocent life.”
Goode said the members of the Alliance have a fervent desire to see a speedy and thorough investigation and to ensure that the state better protects our families, particularly our children.
“More must be done to protect Jamaica’s children and to regain moral grounding and respect for vulnerable groups,” he stated.
The president lamented that if Jamaica as a nation cannot guarantee the safety of its children, then hope for a successful future is dead.
Parents’ Alliance’s Chairman, Rev. Herro-Verne Blair, is already taking steps to discuss the group’s demands with: the Ministers of Education and Transportation; political affiliates from both represented parties; organisers across the transportation sector; leaders of the Primary and Infant School Principals Association; Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison; and representatives of the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA).