Like all other sectors of national life, Haitian schools are paying a heavy price for the crisis. Between school dropouts and lost school days, the Haitian education system has yet to see the end of its troubles. At the beginning of this new school year, kidnapping has now entered the picture. Several cases of students being kidnapped have been reported in Delmas and Port-au-Prince. This marks a new phase of the security crisis facing the country, further increasing fear among Haitian families who thought they had already reached the depths of insecurity with the series of massacres targeting a defenseless population.

Reports on Friday indicated that at least three students and their driver were kidnapped in Bois-Verna. According to available information, other students and their parents suffered the same fate earlier in the week. There has been no reaction from the education or police authorities. Perhaps they are working quietly to ensure that Friday’s kidnapping of students—children—will be the last.