The presence of the police in the Half-Way Tree Transport Centre has not stopped a number of brawls between students from occurring in the afternoons.

For five days starting last Thursday, THE WEEKEND STAR visited the centre between 3 and 4 p.m. For those days, there were at least 14 fights with five occurring during a 20-minute period on the first day.

Only in one case did THE WEEKEND STAR see the police intervene in any of the fights during the five days.

Joy, a commuter who takes the bus every day, said there were days when more fights took place.

"Every day di pickney dem fight in yah. A nuh nutten new and dem nuh care whether or not big people deh before dem or not," she said.

A student at the bus park also confirmed Joy's story, pointing THE WEEKEND STAR to a dispute that eventually became a fight between two girls from a traditional high school.

"A wha dem a fight over," a student asked her friend who was scurrying to see the fight.

"Nuh mus man. Dem ... girls deh fight over nutten else?" her friend replied.

The fight did not last long as the girls were eventually restrained by a group of students. But the peace did not last long either as minutes later, students were seen running to another side of the transport centre as a girl and a boy from two traditional Corporate Area high schools clashed.

ignored the signs

When the battles began, most of the students ignore the signs on the sidewalk warning pedestrians to keep off the roads in the centre. In one case, several boys rushed across a bus that had started to move as they tried to view a fight.

When THE WEEKEND STAR spoke to vendors who ply their wares close to the centre they dubbed the general Half-Way Tree area a 'warzone' for students. "Tek da week yah fi example, dem stab up one student kill him and beat a nex' one wid piece of board or iron mek people haffi rush him go hospital," vendor Milton added.

attacked and stabbed

Milton was referring to the death of 16-year-old Shakeal Nelson, a student of St Andrew College, who was reportedly attacked and stabbed as he stood close to the transport centre on Tuesday. Nelson died at the Kingston Public Hospital.

On that day also, a student of the City College, also in St Andrew, had to be rushed to the hospital after he was reportedly attacked by another group of students and beaten with a piece of iron. Sources from the Half-Way Tree Police Station said they heard of the incident but no formal report was made.

When contacted yesterday, Reginald Allen, corporate communications manager at the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) said his agency was concerned about the number of fights and other illicit activities in the centre.

"It (the centre) is a commercial centre like the plazas in the area so people can come and do their business. Because of this, it is difficult to tell people how long they can stay," said Allen. "From all indications sometimes there are a lot of people in the centre and when that happens all types of things occur. Students play pranks and they also get involved in other things."

He said the JUTC does not own the centre which was opened in 2008, and the Port Authority which manages the facility, and the other tenants have tried to keep acts of violence down.

"There is a police post there but it is difficult because when the centre gets full it can be overwhelming to the police," he said.

Efforts to obtain a comment from the Port Authority was unsuccessful as we were told that the management team had left for the day.