94 Prohibited Items Seized from Georgian Schoolchildren
By Tea Mariamidze
Wednesday, January 24
(TBILISI)--The Resource Officers, who are located at Georgian schools to preserve order and safety, seized 94 dangerous and prohibited items from Georgian schoolchildren in the first semester (September-December) of academic year 2017-2018 in 1242 schools of Georgia.
The information was released by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia. The seized items include such things as knives, lighters, alcohol, electric shocks, electronic cigarettes, cards and pyrotechnics.
As for the academic year 2016-2017, 177 high-risk and various prohibited items were seized during the personal search of schoolchildren at 1966 schools.
The Education Ministry says that a total of 4943 cases have been reported to the Interior Ministry since September 2016.
The statement of the Education Ministry reads that the primary task of the Resource Officer is to ensure safe, healthy and positive environment at public schools and to prevent violence.
“The resource officer is entitled to conduct personal search of schoolchildren by the permission or supervision of the school principal only in case there are some well-grounded suspicions,” the statement reads.
In case of alleged violence, conflict situations, violation of public order and/or violation of law, the resource officers have to report to the parents and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which in turn will take further relevant measures.
Within the safe school program initiated by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, the Office of Resource Officers was created in April 2010.
At the initial stage, within the pilot system, the officers were attached to seven schools of Georgia, however, the current system calls for reserve police officers to be attached to each school and watch for students who cut lessons, smoke, or cause general disruptions on the campus grounds.
