A School Resource Officer of the Royal Bahamas Police Force was injured in a fight that occurred at the Eight Mile Rock High School on Monday. The brawl was caught on camera and the footage quickly circulated on social media.
School Principal, Albert Jones was visible in the video trying to bring the altercation under control. He provided details of the incident to ZNS News. He said, “a young man who was trying to get at one of the boys on the bus. We intercepted him before they could have an altercation so I escort him off the campus. At some point he came back and the police came to my assistance and then some other boys came and kind of joined in and then we had an altercation.”
Jones said during the ordeal he and the officer were assaulted by several students. He said after further investigation they were able to get the names of the students involved some of who were taken into custody by police. The students involved were suspended for two weeks and enrolled into the Genesis Academy.
Parents were called to the school on Tuesday morning for a meeting, some argued that their children were being treated unfairly. One parent, who did not want to be identified, told ZNS News, “my child my be numerous things, my child is not a fighter, my child does not bother anyone. The parents of those other boys tried to flip the script. I don’t mind the punishment. I don’t mind the suspension but for you to try to send my child to Program Sure as if he was the aggressor just to appease the rest of them, that’s not fair and I’m not going to stand for it.”
Grandparent, Claudine Hanna said she was notified that her granddaughter was handcuffed and taken to the Eight Mile Rock Police Station by a friend. “My concern here is why was my granddaughter removed from the Eight Mile Rock school and the parents/grandmother not being notified that she has been removed from the school.”
Officer In Charge of the Northern Bahamas, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Shanta Knowles gave an update about the matter while visiting the school on Tuesday. She said, “we have a few persons in custody who we will be dealing with. Of Course, they are juveniles so we will go through the proper channels in dealing with them as juveniles but we will certainly not take this matter lightly. Our officer has been injured and so now he is off duty for a number of days.”
