Thursday morning between 09.00 a.m and 10.00 a.m. a safety control on weapons and illegal drugs was carried out at the Sint Maarten Vocational School located in South Reward by request and under supervision of the principal mr. V. RICHARDS, assisted by members of the local police force ( Zero Tolerance Team) , members of the VKS and the Costums (K-9) . This control was carried out with the intention, to locate and confiscate any weapons and/or illegal drugs that any of the students may have brought to school, which was also the case with the control at the Sint Maarten Academy PSVE. This school has also been identified, as one of the schools, of which several of the students who attend that school have been involved in serious fights and confrontations whereby weapons came into play. There have also been strong indications, that students of that school may be using drugs. During the search three scissors and a cutting tool was found in the bags of the some students. The drug dog of the Costums was sent in to sniff through the classrooms and eventhough the dog reacted several times to the presence of some type of illegal drug, no drugs were found. Mr. RICHARDS then handed the police several plastic bags containing several machets, several types of knives in different sizes, screwdrivers, lighters, small plastic bags containing small amounts of marijuana, a bottle of Johny Walker Red Label Whisky and several bandan’s/ headties of different colors. ( color of bandana’s indicates which gang you are affiliated to). RICHARDS stated that those items had been confiscated from students of that school by himself and other teachers a short while back. After the search, Inspector Ricardo HENSON was given oppertunity to speak to the students informing them of the reason for the search. He also gave them a speach about violence in general, gang violence, drugs and drug abuse and the negative consiquences they have. The principal mr. RICHARDS and his staff were quite happy with the search and hope to have more of these searches in the near future.
