St James launches police youth club at Spot Valley High with 292 school resource officers

Assistant Commissioner of Police Charmaine Shand opened a police youth club at Spot Valley High School in St James by recalling a line attributed to Frederick Douglass: shaping young lives solidly is simpler than mending adults who go astray. She sits within the constabulary’s Community Safety and Security Branch and described the club as a deliberate step to narrow distance between officers and teenagers, nudging students to read police and justice workers as constructive figures in their neighbourhoods.

The programme draws on 292 school resource officers who already work inside schools and surrounding communities. Shand said the force is determined to put money and energy into young people, viewing them as promise rather than trouble on a spreadsheet. Through the club, she explained, pupils should gain mentoring, instruction in leading others, sport, help with schoolwork, civic involvement, training to settle disagreements without violence, chances to explore culture, volunteering slots, and room to mature personally.

Dr Darian Henry, who leads the Montego Bay Community College, said relentless media stories had left him unsettled. His own scholarship, he noted, shows pupil conduct in class often tracks wider society, and that well-run youth clubs can give children sanctuary, including pupils who lack steady safety at home. He raised a recent flare-up at a senior high school that forced a full lockdown, asking aloud what has gone wrong when campuses built for teaching must seal their gates because of disorder among students. He referenced widely shared video in which someone masked brandished what appeared to be two firearms and scared staff tied to computer work, and he pointed to events near Stella Maris in Kingston, questioning how Jamaica reached that point.

Shand’s remarks landed as the island reflects on last year’s marked drop in serious crime, murders included, and whether institutions can hold those gains. Richard Troupe, who heads safety and security inside the Ministry of Education, argued this club feeds that wider aim by knitting trust between adolescents and uniformed officers, boys especially. He said pathways should open for youngsters to picture policing and allied agencies as careers chosen deliberately—not last-ditch jobs—and to treat the service as a source of optimism.