Schoolgirls given conditional discharges for fight
Two high school students were given a conditional discharge for a fight that erupted on Court Street last week.Safia Gardner, 18, and Melanie Walker, 17, both from Pembroke, pleaded guilty in Magistrates’ Court to the affray.Crown counsel Robert Welling said police on mobile patrol near the Court Street branch of Digicel on May 4 saw two young women exchanging blows around 5pm.Officers stopped the two teenagers and arrested them for fighting.The pair appeared in Magistrates’ Court yesterday wearing their school uniforms.They told Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner that the fight came after two years of taunts and name calling.Mr Warner told the pair that they should have used the skills they had been taught in school to avoid the confrontation rather than allowing it to turn physical.“Do either of you know what a criminal conviction will cost you, because it seems like you young people don’t care, and think you can do what you like, make bad choices and still benefit from everything that is out there,” Mr Warner said.“You are being taught to make much better choices than this. You cannot go around the place swearing, cursing and fighting to solve your problems.”Mr Warner released both teenagers on a conditional discharge with supervision.He warned them that if they commit other offences in the next year, they would receive a criminal conviction.