Acting Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, St. Clair Leacock, has warned that students who engage in public brawls and other criminal behaviour will face firm police action, insisting that there will be no tolerance for street violence involving schoolchildren.
Addressing a church service in Kingstown on Monday to mark the 118th anniversary of the St. Vincent Grammar School, Leacock delivered one of the starkest statements yet on how his government intends to respond to student misbehaviour in public spaces.
Referring to a recent viral video of schoolgirls fighting in the streets of Kingstown, Leacock said such behaviour would be treated as a matter for law enforcement, not just school discipline.
“If you are a student and you’re on the streets and you’re fighting, I’ll ask the police to go to the school, get your names, and you’ll be disciplined. It will not happen under my watch,” he said.
“Let me be emphatic about it, because I know the ears of the media houses are cocked. If you are a school student, behave like a school student.
“You go on the streets and your behaviour is criminal, the police will be advised to deal firmly and swiftly with you. I’m not second-guessing that; not second-guessing that.”
The acting prime minister framed the issue as part of a wider national security and social order agenda, arguing that the state could not afford to be lenient in the face of rising concerns about youth involvement in crime.
He said the country had invested too much in its young people for them to be allowed to squander their opportunities through violent or criminal conduct.
“Your parents, your grandparents, have invested far too much in you, and the expectations of this nation-state are as such that we have no room for criminal behaviour, bullying in our schools,” he said.
Leacock, a Grammar School alumnus, said that he wanted the school and other institutions to “take a lead role in setting the examples for our St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”
Leacock said that, in his capacity as minister of national security, the Commissioner of Police briefed him last week on a group of students arrested in connection with serious offences.
He said some six or seven students had been held “for firearms and for burglaries and for assaults”.
While they were allowed to sit their exams before being prosecuted, he suggested that this represented a measure of leniency that may not always be repeated.
He told the congregation that those students should “consider themselves lucky” and insisted that, in principle, they “should have been prosecuted summarily for breaking the law”.
Leacock’s comments signal a hardening of the government’s public stance on youth crime and disorder, especially when it involves enrolled students who are still in uniform or otherwise under school discipline.
He drew a clear line between the expectations placed on students within the school system and the standards of behaviour required of them when they step into public spaces.
“If you are a school student, behave like a school student,” he said. “You go on the streets, and your behaviour is criminal. The police will be advised to deal firmly and swiftly with you”.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines saw an upsurge in crime and delinquency in schools last year, with some students identifying themselves as members of the 6ixx and 7even gangs.
The acting prime minister’s remarks came during a ceremony otherwise focused on celebrating the legacy and achievements of the St. Vincent Grammar School, the oldest secondary institution in the country, which has produced generations of national leaders.
Leacock himself, a proud alumnus, repeatedly reminded students that they were seen as the “future leadership” of SVG.
However, he used that same context of pride, tradition, and expectation to reinforce his argument that the school and its students must help lead the way in restoring and maintaining discipline, both on campus and in the wider society.