A Safe Space project to trans­form the quad­ran­gle of the Mu­cu­rapo East Sec­ondary School in­to an artis­tic, peace­ful space has been of­fi­cial­ly launched.14.

The up­grades to the quad­ran­gle high­light the area as a des­ig­nat­ed space where stu­dents can recre­ate and so­cialise peace­ful­ly. The project was part of an ini­tia­tive to pre­vent crime through en­vi­ron­men­tal de­sign.

The EPIC project was a col­lab­o­ra­tive ef­fort by De­loitte & Touche, the Dig­i­cel Foun­da­tion, the prin­ci­pal, teach­ers, stu­dents and staff of the Mu­cu­rapo East Sec­ondary School.

The TT$33,500 in­vest­ment cov­ered the up­grade of the school’s quad­ran­gle with a vi­brant, colour­ful mur­al con­tain­ing pos­i­tive mes­sages, the paint­ing of bench­es and plant pots in the var­i­ous stu­dent house colours.

An­oth­er ad­di­tion to the quad­ran­gle was the in­stal­la­tion of the first phase of a sail canopy roof and the in­stal­la­tion of new plants.

Prin­ci­pal of the school Derek Phillips said the ini­tia­tive, which be­gan four year ago, was in­tend­ed to re­duce mis­be­hav­iour and acts as an an­ti-bul­ly­ing mech­a­nism with­in and out­side the school’s com­pound through chang­ing the phys­i­cal en­vi­ron­ment.

He said, “It has cer­tain­ly en­hanced the beau­ty of our school and is a start of things to come”

Headley was one of the two teach­ers who com­plet­ed the wall mur­al with art stu­dents.