Pubdate: Sun, 10 Dec 2006
Source: Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday (Trinidad)
Copyright: 2006 Daily News Limited
Contact:  http://www.newsday.co.tt/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4370
Author: Mark Lawrence

CHILDREN BEHAVING BADLY

Near fatal stabbings, prestige school clubbing, a schoolboy 
gang-attack on a family, book bags with loaded firearms, the brutal 
beating of a drunken old man, the smashing of a teacher's car with a 
metal dustbin, female fist-fights over jewelry and romance and the 
assault of a police officer by a gang of students have all served to 
colour the landscape of school crime and violence in Trinidad for the 
past two years.

Mentorship programmes, a heightened police presence and increased 
psychological measures have all been instituted but many fear that 
these are not attacking the root of the problem which some say 
revolves around communities, parenting, literacy and teacher absenteeism.

According to National Parent Teacher Association President Zena 
Ramatali, problems which exist outside the schools' walls are being 
imposed on the school environment.

"The drug culture is affecting a lot of schools, there are some 
children who live in those settings. I spoke to one teacher who said 
that his school had a drug problem. When they thought that the drugs 
were from an outside person they found out that a student was selling 
marijuana. The student explained that he makes $8,000 a term selling 
marijuana," lamented Ramatali.

Ramatali added, "there is a serious lack of parental involvement in 
schools. If parents are involved and checking in the schools, that 
would alleviate a lot of the problems."

The grim picture was reinforced by Principal's Association President 
Trevor Oliver.

Oliver indicated that, "There are a number of delinquent parents out 
there. The blame has to be placed in part on many fathers because 
they have abandoned the home front. In some cases children are 
stealing and taking those things home and the parents are not even 
pulling them up."

Acting Assistant Superintendent Haynes Fraser, head of the Trinidad 
and Tobago Drug Abuse Resistance Educa-tion (DARE) Programme, also 
highlighted the parental and community issue as affecting the school 
environment.

The trained police counsellor said that, "One of the major problems 
we see is home management. Some officers will tell you that there are 
cases where parents have to leave home early and the children are 
unsupervised for long periods and have low self-esteem. They bring 
that problem into the school."

"If the youths are exposed to drugs or other substances in terms of 
alcohol or marijuana within their community it will affect how they 
deal with issues with their peers in the school. The Community Police 
are working together with the schools to curb this behaviour," added Fraser.

The behaviour includes the possession of arms and ammunition. In late 
2004 15-year-old Angelo Noel was stabbed in the head and face by a 
14-year-old schoolmate at the Diego Martin Junior Secondary School.

In mid 2005 a 16-year-old student of the Carapichaima Senior 
Comprehensive School was held at the school and later charged for 
possession of a loaded gun.

Intense programmes and random searches conducted by police and 
security officers, all aimed at alleviating the problem of weapons in 
schools however failed to prevent a kitchen knife from being thrust 
into the back of 13-year-old Jerome Galston on the Belmont Junior 
Secondary compound. The most chilling of the reported details was 
that the stabbing was done by a 13-year-old.

Beyond the consensus on the impact of external factors, conditions 
within the school were cited as being in need of reform.

"In October Minister (H) Manning said that there are alot of angry 
children in the system. If that is the case we need more social 
workers and guidance counselors. The Ministry is working on 
de-shifting, and it is needed now. When we look at Marabella Junior 
Secondary, they had alot of violent incidents but after the school 
was de-shifted we are not hearing any violence from them," said Ramatali.

Marabella Junior Secondary experienced several incidents including 
the arrest of 15 students after a massive brawl in 2004. Increased 
Community Policing interventions and several efforts by the Ministry 
of Education have been implemented since.

When attempts were made to contact the school's principal Sunday 
Newsday was told that he was unavailable due to, "rushing around for 
the end of the term."

Ramatali went on to cite remedies which included, "more remedial teachers."

"They cannot cope. students cannot read or write well. Too many are 
weak in numeracy and literacy skills, many of those who engage in 
violence are those who perform poorly in school."

On the issue of literacy and its impact Fraser expressed the view 
that, "alot of the students have poor literacy skills. I was 
suggesting that the schools try to create a development programme 
where the students will be able to get hands on skills whether 
electrical, sewing, masonry. If they use some of these practical 
things like music drama, art, or sports, it would raise their self esteem."

Oliver added, "if children are not at the literacy level that they 
should be this is a cause for restlessness and causes indiscipline in 
the school system.

Oliver went on to highlight the need to ensure that literacy becomes 
a focus of primary school education in Primary schools. To deal with 
the matter the Principal's Association has established a literacy 
campaign which Oliver hopes will address the issue.

While illiteracy plays a major role Oliver believes that if the 
violent tendencies can be overcome through a student, teacher synergy 
and effort by the student to learn.

"Children must be interested in learning. Teachers must make the 
educational content so attractive that children are glued to 
learning. Where teachers are deficient thy have to buck up, and 
principals have to create the right environment for this to happen," 
said Oliver.

Teacher absenteeism was cited by Ramatali to be one of the main 
reasons why, at Junior Secondary Schools in particular, there are so 
many violent incidents.

"Many of the incidents have to do with absentee teachers. We see 
these incidents occurring on a block where there is not a single teacher."

Following the issue of the "High Risk School" list by the Ministry of 
Education coupled with widespread media coverage of violent incidents 
in the Junior Secondary schools has led to further stigmatisation. 
The perception may however be skewed.

One of the few reports of violence coming out of a prestige school 
was in May of this year when a 13-year-old student of St Mary's 
College was reportedly beaten with a piece of iron by a classmate.

When asked about the reason why almost all such reported incidents 
come out of the Junior Secondary schools Fraser replied, "it seems to 
suggest that prestige schools tend to manage those incidents, but 
really and truly, incidents are coming out of those schools."

The Police Inspector cited very recent incidents in which students 
from other schools began robbing students of two "prestige schools" 
saying that these events are reported while the internal incidents 
between students of these schools don't usually reach the police.

Along with the DARE Programme the Peace Promotion Programme, formerly 
known as the School Intervention Strategy Unit, of the Ministry of 
Education, is continuing efforts to directly address violence and 
indiscipline in schools.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine