By Buba Gagigo
The National Students’ Association of Basic and Secondary Schools in The Gambia has issued a strong condemnation of the recent attack on Deeper Life Senior Secondary School students.
In a statement released on March 25th, 2024, the Association expressed deep concern over the incident, which involved students allegedly from Glory Baptist West Africa Senior Secondary School (WASSS) and Deeper Life Senior Secondary School engaging in violent acts.
“The National Students’ Association of Basic and Secondary Schools, writes with great concern and urgency regarding a recent and deeply disturbing incident which occurred on the 25th of March 2024. It has come to our attention that students purported to be from Glory Baptist West Africa Senior Secondary School (WASSS) and Deeper Life Senior Secondary School have engaged in gross acts of violence which left education actors and the larger Gambian community shocked and saddened,” the students’ Association said.
The attack, captured in a circulating video, depicted the severe beating of a Deeper Life Senior Secondary School student named Musa Sissoho with hammers and irons, according to Kexx Sanneh’s sources.
“The National Students Association of Basic and Secondary Schools condemns this reprehensible laxity in the strongest possible terms,” they said.
They promised to engage school administrators, law enforcement agencies, and others to ensure appropriate measures are taken to address the matter effectively.
“We will engage school administrators, law enforcement agencies, and relevant stakeholders to ensure that this matter is addressed with the utmost and appropriate handling it deserves while exploring mechanisms to continuously engage with students in dialogues and sensitization to avert the occurrence of such. Let us reaffirm our commitment to creating safe and nurturing environments where every student can thrive and reach their full potential. This is completely unacceptable and goes against the very essence of what it means to be a student. Schools are places of learning, growth, and safety and not arenas of violence and intimidation,” they concluded.