100 students locked up

By Alice Osii
POLICE locked up more than 100 Port Moresby students over the weekend “as a lesson” to stop them from being involved in school fights.
The 132 students were locked up over the weekend for “carrying offensive weapons in public”.
The fight between male students of the Badihagwa Secondary School and KilaKila Secondary School happened on Wednesday and Thursday.
National Capital District Metropolitan Superintendent Perou N’Dranou condemned what the students did.
“They were carrying knives, screw drivers and sling shots. What are they trying to prove?” he said.
He told the students from both secondary schools to come up with a solution, and that police would attend any peace talks arranged by them.
“I am putting this 132 students in the cell so that this will be a lesson to other schools in the capital city and around the country,” N’Dranou said.
He said police would arrest students “who want to be heroes in public”.
It is alleged that the fight started when a female student from Badihagwa took a shot of four female students wearing the KilaKila school uniform and posted it on Facebook with the caption, “Proud Badians chasing KilaKila’s at home ground”.
Badihagwa Secondary School captain Lennie Owen said they were returning home on Wednesday when they were attacked by male students from Kilakila at the 4-Mile bus stop.
This was repeated on Thursday –in front of Badihagwa school principal Maru Bala.
“They were ambushed right before my eyes for the second time,” Bala said.
Bala said he had told the students to go home straight after school but was surprised when he got a call from a colleague that they were at the Boroko police station.
He called what they did as “disgraceful, humiliating and embarrassing”.
But Owen said they were trying to make their way to Lahara Park at 4-Mile to have peace talks with Kilakila students on Friday when they were rounded up by police and taken to the Boroko police station.
NCD Taskforce Commander Inspector Mark Mosinakave said the students had told police they were trying to reach a peace agreement.
“But we found knives among their possessions,” he said.
Mosinakave told the students to concentrate on their school work.
“Taking your martial arts, shaolin or kung fu skills to the streets will not solve any problem,” he said.
“If you want to beat other students, beat them academically.”