Students furious after reported attack at CASE

TIFFANY PRYCE

STAR Writer

Students of the College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE) protested for hours today after a rape allegedly occurred on the Portland campus on Sunday.

The school's administration is under fire after years of what students call empty promises to get stronger security. According to one of the protesters, a first-year student reportedly exited a taxi on Sunday night, and was walking towards the administrative office when she was accosted and raped. The administration, in a statement, said it is cooperating fully with an ongoing police investigation.

The e-mail which was sent to students was repeatedly read aloud during the protest, saying CASE has "reinforced security protocols" following the incident. But for many students, the statement echoed past assurances that never translated into real security.

"No security no farm, no security no farm!" students chanted as the email was read.

"One security cyaa work for a population of over 1,000 students. How that work?" one student told THE STAR.

Students made repeated reference to a March 2022 attack, when a female student was abducted around 5 a.m. while heading to farm practice and dragged to bushes near an abandoned railway tunnel before being assaulted.

"None a we nuh safe as students. It coulda be any one a we, and fi see say it happen in the wide open, somewhere weh security shoulda deh you know it serious," another student said.

CASE President Derrick Deslandes, in a Gleaner article, promised beefed-up security including extra patrols, CCTV and even a shuttle service, but many students say they never saw the changes on the ground.

"Every time a dat dem say! Dem not even come out come talk to we from we out here whole morning. We nuh see the president, a the media mek we know bout this. It's after word got out them send email," another student said.

"If something can happen in broad daylight, a wah chance we have at night?" one student asked, while calling for leadership accountability.

Students vowed to escalate their demands for concrete security improvements, insisting that emails and words are no longer enough.