MONTEGO BAY, St James – Plagued with constant break-ins due to a lack of adequate security measures at the Irwin Primary School, Principal Kingsley Bailey can now heave a sigh of relief after the school received eight security camera systems through the assistance of past students.

Last month Bailey told the Jamaica Observer West that the school has reported 14 break-ins since it was forced shut in March 2020 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The school was unable to acquire a 24-hour security guard due to a shortage of resources, the principal had said.

With this donation of eight additional security camera systems, Bailey told the Observer West, the school will now be properly secured as only the school’s canteen and main office had security cameras before.

The donors, who all attended the Irwin Hill All-Age School, before it was rebranded the Irwin Primary School, and the neighbouring Irwin High School presented the new security camera systems to Bailey during the school’s morning devotion on Monday.

In his response, Bailey expressed “sincere gratitude” to the past students, noting that the school had an additional three break-ins within the last four weeks.

“Today we have some past students from the Irwin Hill All-Age School, which is now Irwin Primary School, here with us. So, the past students donated cameras that will help us to alleviate the problem of the break-ins. We wanted to implement this system for a good while now, but we were not able to generate enough funds to do so,” Bailey told the Observer West in an exclusive interview.

“We are truly grateful to the team for seeing it fit to take time out of their busy schedules to visit us and also to use their own resources to purchase the badly needed cameras.”

Noting that the school has also received additional assistance to combat the security and termite infestation concerns, Bailey thanked the Observer West for highlighting those issues that were negatively impacting the learning institution recently.

“We must also extend gratitude to the Observer West for reporting our issues because that has also given us a push. The lay magistrates in Zone One have donated some deadbolt locks and they promised to help us with the treatment of the termites,” said Bailey.

“We have also received a call from a company that wants to assist us to refurbish our library and other furniture that have been damaged by the termites. So, we are truly grateful to the Observer West for highlighting our problems and we see by the assistance we have received, how the media can truly help us,” the principal added.

Owen Anderson, a past student of the Irwin Hill All-Age School, told the Observer West that the past students were eager to assist the institution after they became aware of the inadequate security measures.

“We started an online group for the Irwin Hill All-Age past students and we wanted to get something in place for this school…,” Anderson said.

“We heard that there were constant break-ins at the school and that they couldn’t keep anything safe here, so we wanted to make sure that we at least start off by looking at the security concerns,” the past student added.

Noting that the school will greatly benefit from the added security cameras, Anderson told the Observer West that more will be done for the Irwin Primary School going forward.

“There are a lot more past students out there who want to assist the school, so this is the first of many donations to the school. This is just the beginning of something great,” Anderson proudly stated.