In a bizarre incident on Wednesday, a knife-wielding youth barged into the Cujira school complex and assaulted three college students on the campus during the mid-school break. The tussle was a result of an altercation on the previous day. Ironically, the accused brandishing the knife inside the campus was captured on video by a passer-by. While the police swung into action and swiftly arrested those involved in the altercation, the incident has raised security concerns at the campus with some parents requesting a police outpost since there are three schools and one college in the area.
The police have been maintaining that the area has been covered with personnel managing traffic and providing security outside the premises, and they have allayed fears citing the police outpost in Bambolim. Much against all the comfort talk that the police are giving, it is obvious that there has been a breach that raises serious concerns about the safety and security of students from pre-primary to college level studying at the campus.
While the police may be reluctant to install security inside campuses, nothing stops school management from collaborating and putting up tighter security protocols along the lines of some other educational institutions in the State. A stranger cannot be allowed to just walk into a campus and brandish weapons and engage in an assault, it reflects a complete failure of the system.
Goa is fortunate not to have witnessed violence and attacks on the lines seen overseas like the Iowa school shooting. However, the rising graph of crime and the assaults and kidnappings that are taking place in Goa in recent times make security a priority in every sphere of life, police assurances notwithstanding.
In the current issue, the assault happened within the complex, in full view at ‘interval’ time. In a school environment, such scenes are bound to have an adverse impact on the minds of young students. While the talk has been to counsel students through professional counsellors to help them overcome various mental and emotional challenges faced, such scenes will make it worse for students and cause unrest.
One argument may be that the complex is secured through CCTV coverage, but the counter-argument is that those are not deterrents, but only tools to detect wrongdoing or crime. School campuses need stringent entry-exit protocols where security personnel are deployed and held accountable. Interestingly, in some school campuses, there is a log of every person who enters the campus, identities are checked, and details of the visitors and the purpose of the visit are taken note of. In some cases, there is a message relayed by the security men to the school office about the visitor. Assailants cannot enter the campus of their free will and do what they please.
The Cujira incident has undoubtedly triggered an alarm bell. Instead of blaming the police or asking for an outpost at the campus, school managements must devise internal security arrangements which would be far more pragmatic and practical. In the current times where the burden and pressure on the men in khaki are showing, demands for additional forces to man schools across Goa would mean there would be compromises on law and order elsewhere. It’s time to look for solutions within.
