A fight between two students at the Berkeley Institute this week saw both treated at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital one for multiple stab wounds; the other an injured hand.

In the aftermath of the incident, which resulted in the arrest of the two 16-year-old boys, The Royal Gazette canvassed residents to see if they thought security needed to be improved in schools.

Most agreed with Nikki Gurret, who said the fight was indicative of social problems on the Island and not a call for tighter control measures.

"Initially it appears to be a security problem, in the end it comes down to a social problem," she said.

Ms Gurret said that even if metal detectors were installed as a means of keeping weapons outside of school premises, an attack could happen.

"It could have been a knife from the cafeteria. It could have been a ballpoint pen. He doesn't even need a knife. He could strangle him or hit him and cause a concussion.

"It's disturbing, but it boils down to a social issue. What matters is that people take care of their children," she said.

Elaine Lee agreed: "These sort of events follow occurrences outside of the school. They carry them with them.

"The school had no way of knowing this was going to happen."

According to Linda Terry, incidents like the one that occurred on Tuesday could be prevented if children were better disciplined.

"I think parents should just discipline their children. Give them a good cut behind. Let the parents be the security in the house."

Sarah Meirowski argued that increased security would be unfair to the vast majority of the students.

"You'd be punishing everyone for the actions of just two. Sure, you could put in metal detectors, but you don't want to be too American."

Lloyd Somner argued that stronger security could have the opposite effect of what was intended.

Police yesterday announced that one of the boys involved in the fight had been arrested on suspicion of possessing illegal drugs.

Wim Decorte singled out drugs as a bigger issue then weapons in schools.

"We shouldn't be looking at weapons, we should be working to keep drugs out of the school," he said.

Cecilie Robinson said she believed drugs were likely involved in the incident before the announcement was made, saying that she knows children are employed in the drug industry.

She called for security to be improved in the schools.

James Hea meanwhile, offered a more creative solution. He suggested that Government look into introducing transcendental meditation in the public system.

"You need the kids to calm down," he said. "Transcendental meditation has been used in some schools in the US. There's some scientific evidence that it does work. You can't laugh at the science."