X-treme Sports?

An event is coming up that appears to hold so much danger to life and limb and to threaten individuals’ safety to such an extent that the most stringent security measures will have to be put in place for it to be able to take place.
It is an occasion where thousands of people are being called on to gather in one place … and the forces of law and order have seen it fit to prepare with a highly-beefed-up contingent of police officers who will be called on to keep patrolling the crowd, keeping as close watch as is humanly possible to avert any manifestation of violence that could result in the injuring – and possibly even death – of the crowd members.
The event is being held in an enclosed area and the police have instituted a system whereby each and every individual who enters the enclosure will be required to undergo an extensive and thorough search of his/her person, in an effort to ensure that no lethal weapons – knives, guns, etc. – are smuggled into the crowd where they may be used to do their deadly work.
In addition, in an endeavour to guarantee that evil-intentioned individuals do not first pass muster by submitting to a search and subsequently go back outside and return with one or more weapons concealed on their persons, the police have also instituted a no-re-entry policy, so that once out, there is no way of getting back in.
If all of the above sounds like procedure being carried out at points of entry into the United States at the height of a terrorist red alert; if it sounds like precautions being taken at some mass rally in London where a reliable tip-off has been received that an Al-Quaeda attack is imminent; if it sounds like preparation against an oncoming insurgent uprising in protest against a dictator’s injustice in some foreign land, then think again.

It is happening right here in Fair Helen, in Simply Beautiful Sweet St. Lucia, in Paradise Found.
And no, the event in question has no political overtones, it is not an Opposition demonstration that threatens to turn bloody and violent; it is not even police precaution being taken at Carnival, in case some drunken adults jostle each other too brusquely on the streets or decide to revolt against a judges’ decision regarding Band of the Year or Calypso Monarchy.
No, these are not drunken or enraged adults that instill such an extreme note of fear and caution in our law enforcement organization. All the arrangements described above have been put in place for the holding of the Inter Secondary Schools’ Athletic Championships at the National Stadium in Vieux Fort this coming week.
Our school children are the ones who have to be searched for weapons, to whom protection against each other has to be provided by a more-than-usually-large contingent of police officers … and who, it is feared, could turn the entire school meet into a bloodbath, if they are not strictly guarded and monitored.
To all of you who have fond memories of Sports Day during your school days, when all was carefree, fun-loving, joyful competition, cherish those bygone days and look upon them with wistful nostalgia.
Apparently those days are gone, never to return.
Welcome to St. Lucia of the twenty-first century!