Prudence Bartley, 28, library aide

First and foremost, I think that we should have the security force on guard at every high school. But since we don't have this in place, I think we should arrest them for a couple of hours and see if it can reduce the incidence of delinquent students carrying weapons to school.

Nicardo 'Charlie Bobus' Murray, 28, motivational dub poet

"I think the long-term initiative should be to get corporate Jamaica to invest in metal detectors with security personnel at the school gate, even though, sometimes, the youths come up with ingenious ways to get around the systems. One short-term initiative can be random searches of students on the compound.

Crosby Brown, 45, messenger

You can't make it a point of duty to search everyone at the gate because that is not what school is about. Maybe random searches, here and there, but I believe that if they are caught, they must be handed over to the police. No secon' chances!

Jermaine Haughton, 20, student

First thing, inform them about the law. Everybody knows that you must not carry any weapon to school. They must be fully informed about the consequences of their actions and searched before being allowed to enter the school compound. The police need to be involved and at least one police officer should be assigned to a school.

- Text and photos by Laranzo Dacres