Above: Jacqui Quinn-Leandro

Antiguan Education Minister Dr Jacqui Quinn-Leandro is sending a warning to students that the government has adopted a zero-tolerance policy on anti-social behaviour.

Quinn-Leandro was speaking in the House of Representatives after the expulsion of eight students from Antigua’s Ottos Comprehensive School. The Minister defended the expulsions and said her ministry is aimed at students who display “deviant conduct” in any of Antigua’s public high schools.

She also defended the decision to dispatch law enforcement officers to the school to conduct searches following a brawl on Nov. 4, a somewhat controversial measure in the public.

“I would like this who criticize, who feel that the principal and teachers must deal with it, to put themselves in the shoes of the staff at OCS,” she said. “When, without due regard for the teachers, principal and students, those young men were behaving like raging bulls, who could not be controlled and persuaded to let reason and rationality prevail.”

Quinn-Leandro insisted that being in school beyond age 16 was “not a right,” and there was no place in the school system for “downright bad behaviour.”

“If there are thugs in our schools, who best to deal with cutlass-toting, knife-wielding, criminally-minded young men than the police?” She asked.