No students’ fight at Busu Secondary

BUSU Secondary School, in Lae, Morobe, has not been involved in any school fight for two years, principal George Geyactulu said yesterday.
Geyactulu said it was the students themselves who had made a difference.
His comment followed the death of a Bugandi Secondary School student last Friday, reportedly following a school conflict.
Inter-school fights involving mostly high and secondary school male students have been prevalent in Lae over the past five years.
This year was rated as very bad, with more than five fights that led to suspension of classes at a number of institutions in the city.
Classes at Bumayong Secon­dary School, just outside Lae, have were suspended until the next academic year following clashes with people in the surrounding settlements. 
Speaking in Lae yesterday, Ge­yactulu said Busu had managed to get its students off the streets for two consecutive years because they repeatedly had meetings to remind them of their educational goals throughout the year. 
Different church denominations and stakeholder groups like Correctional Services had been invited to speak to students there on the downside of crime and bad behaviour during the meetings.
The community around Busu Secondary School, from Butibam village to Malahang, had supported students and helped diffuse situations that could have led to fights.
“We (school management and teachers) continually talk to our students to try to make them change their mindset and way of looking at these problems,” Geyactulu said.
The 1,122 Grades 9 and 11 students are encouraged to fight using their brains rather than their hands.
“We can come up with all kinds of reasons why school conflicts are continuing but it all boils down to whether individual students want change for themselves.
“Only then can the fights stop,” Geyactulu said.
Students had remained firm in the motto, “one Busu, no groupings”.
Busu believes that schools should be able to find ways of putting an end to cult practices and inter-school disputes without necessarily having to call police in.
Geyactulu said police should only be asked to help if criminal matters arose but overall it was up to school managements, stakeholders, parents and the provincial education board to take strong and decisive action.