placed at all secondary schools on a trial basis, starting Monday morning.

Guards will now be posted at Sandys and St. George's Secondary Schools and at the Berkeley Institute, he told the House of Assembly.

Earlier this week security guards took up duties at Northlands and Warwick Secondary Schools and the Whitney Institute.

The move followed a recent brutal attack by a 15-year-old student against Warwick Secondary School teacher Victor Coggin and revelations of other teachers -- including Northlands Principal Carol Bassett -- had been verbally abused and threatened.

"The guards we have stationed at these schools, on a trial basis, are not there to take discipline out of teacher's hands,'' Mr. Dill told the House.

"Indeed, their principal function will be to keep outsiders -- often ex-students -- from coming and causing trouble.'' But violence in the schools -- while not out of hand -- is there and has deeper roots, he added.

"Increasingly, some young people are refusing to accept that they have an obligation to respect the authority of their parents, their teachers and their elders in the community.'' Mr. Dill told the House he planned to meet with the teaching staff this coming week to seek more input on the question of safety in the school.