Students held with cutlass, cigarettes

HOURS before Education Minister Hazel Manning held a press conference to discuss school violence and indiscipline, a major gang-war among students of the Fyzabad Composite School was averted when police, acting on a tipoff, went to the school and arrested students found with a cutlass, cigarettes and a bottle of gasoline yesterday.

The student held with the cutlass has been charged with possession of a concealed weapon, and will appear before a Siparia magistrate on Monday to answer the charge. According to police reports, around 8.30 am officers from Fyzabad Police Station received an anonymous telephone tip-off informing them that students from the school, who belong to rival gangs, were preparing for a major violent showdown. Armed police hurriedly went to the school and carried out a body search of all students and found a quantity of cigarettes on three students while another was held with a small bottle of gasoline. Yet another student was held after officers discovered a razor-sharp cutlass hidden in his school-bag. After the searches, the officers lectured the students about school delinquency and warned the teenagers that they faced being charged and having a criminal record, if they took part in gang-violence, illegal drugs and other criminal acts. Cpl Learie Oliver of the Fyzabad Police Station is investigating.