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Collette Fertado Pryce, Principal of St. James High School
Classes resumed at St. Jago High in Spanish Town, St. Catherine on Friday morning after operations were disrupted on Thursday when gunmen and the police traded bullets in the vicinity of the school.
However, the student turnout was low, while 90 per cent of academic and support staff were present.
Principal Collette Fertado Pryce said apart from some rain, the violence was one of the contributing factors for the decline in student attendance.
Only about 330 students of the more than 1,700 school population were in attendance Friday morning. She said some parents had called the school to say they would keep their children until Monday.
Thursday's flare up in violence was due to the fatal shooting of a man by police on Jones Avenue. That shooting lead to protests in which criminals began to open gunfire.
The police responded and the gunmen ran through the grounds of St. Jago High.
Mrs Fertado Pryce said whenever there is an upsurge of violence in Spanish Town, people tend to use the school's compound as a throughfare.
She argued that Thursday's incident further highlighted the need for improvements to the school's perimetre wall.
"It's just unfortunate that the walls are not high enough to deter intruders from encroaching unto our property, and I think that needs to be fixed so that there can be a feeling of added safety," she admitted.
She said the issue had previously come up during a National Educational Inspectorate visit to the school in 2014.
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