BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – Members of Operation Future (OF) are keeping their promise to provide a constant reminder to the nation’s youth that paths of crime and violence are to be avoided. This promise was kept yesterday morning (Mar. 13) when they paid a visit to the students and staff of the Tyrell-Williams Primary School.
This school, like others around the island, is no stranger to OF, and while the general proceedings took on familiar form, a twist was thrown into the mix; an addition which the children did not seem to mind.
As was the case for past schools visited, popular radio-personality Andre ‘The Magic Man’ Phipps accompanied the officers to the institution and assisted in spreading the anti-crime message to the future leaders.
The Magic Man was accompanied by Windsor Medical University student Latesha Oliver of South Central, LA, the gang capital of the United States of America.
Students listened with intrigue as she informed of the hardships she encountered because of gang-related activities. She informed her bright-eyed and eager listeners that some of her family members were involved in gangs which led to a number of unfortunate incidents, some of which included her having to dodge bullets.
She also spoke specifically about the loss of her mother and grandmother to the bullets of drug dealers.
Having experienced firsthand effects of gang-related and other criminal activities, Oliver pleaded with the children not to get entangled in the webs of crime which may present themselves. She reminded them that involvement in these activities, more often than not, ends negatively.
Ian, the Canine Unit’s firearms and explosives tracking dog, is a favourite at the schools he previously visited; equally so at the Tyrell Williams Primary School.
In an interactive session, Ian successfully located and retrieved a firearm that was hidden by one of the teachers. Although the firearm was hidden in a backpack and placed beside a parked vehicle, Ian was able to locate it and alert his trainer, Constable Arthurton, of his find.
As reinforcement to the advice of Phipps and Oliver, OF’s founder and leader Officer Lauston Percival admonished the students to pursue their education with fervour and resist the temptations which may be presented them to indulge in crime.
Operation Future was founded in mid-2006 when Officer Percival recognised the need to inundate the minds of the nation’s youth with wholesome and positive alternatives to crime.
