Glenroy Sinclair and Mark Beckford, Gleaner Reporters

Fed up with the number of senseless killings in the constituency of Central Kingston which have left their students traumatised, several teachers yesterday journeyed from the Holy Family Primary School to the Jamaica Teachers' Association headquarters on Church Street, crying out for help.

They made the journey a day after some of them staged a sit-in, protesting the violence that has gripped the community.

Mother killed

Last week, Marcia Newby, who accompanied her child to school, was killed by gunmen on her way back home. Yesterday, four more persons were shot, three fatally, in other sections of central Kingston.

Between Monday night and yesterday afternoon, at least eight persons were shot between Allman Town and the Southside/Tel-Aviv areas of central Kingston.

Kenneth Robinson, 52, was killed along Laws Street about 11:55 a.m. yesterday. About 2:50 p.m. Derrick Gray, 42, was shot and killed by gunmen on George's Lane, and an hour and a half later a female, who was unidentified up to press time, was killed on Hitchen Street in Allman Town.

Teachers traumatised

The killings have prompted scores of fearful parents to keep their young ones at home, instead of sending them to school.

"The teachers are really traumatised," said Cecile Palmer, principal of the Holy Family Primary School, located on Laws Street in Southside.

Attendance at the school has been low. There are reports that students living in Tel-Aviv are in fear.

"One morning I had to drive through that part of the community and pick up about 20 students in my van and take them across to school," the principal said.

Chairman of the school, deacon Oswald Tie, described the situation as very sad. He has spoken to the political representatives, who are in dialogue with the security forces.

Reprisal killings common

Although police statistics show that three persons were killed for the month of March in the Central Kingston Police Division, many more Jamaicans have been killed since then, with shootings and reprisals being common.

Four months into the year, already more than 480 persons have been murdered since January. Police statistics released yesterday for the first three months showed that 370 persons were killed over the period.