Societal intervention needed as student violence at crisis level - Wright

By Kimone Witter    

 

President of the Jamaica Association of Principals and Vice Principals of Secondary Schools (JAPSS), Linvern Wright says despite the best efforts of the Ministry of Education and school administrators, some children resort to violence to resolve conflicts.

 

Mr. Wright says the situation requires all of society's intervention as violence among students is at crisis level.

 

He was reacting to the outbreak of violent clashes involving students of several Corporate Area schools.

 

The dispute has reportedly stemmed from a love triangle.

 

A meeting to resolve the issue is to be held at Calabar High School today (Friday).

 

Speaking Friday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106, Mr. Wright said violence has become the default response of children because they see it as acceptable behaviour based on the level of violence in the society.  

 

"I think what this means now that these school leaders have to be taking this on is that every single one of us, from school leaders to Prime Minister to Governor General, to every single person, has got to understand that this is a crisis when your children who are supposed to really not have got to this stage as yet, are at this stage where all of us as a nation are in fear and in horror because of how they have played out," he contended. 

 

Mr. Wright said the disciplinary action and counselling that will be administered by the various schools in response to the violent clashes need to be followed by long term solutions.

 

The president of the Jamaica Association of Principals and Vice Principals of Secondary Schools said the interventions will require careful thought and not be limited to schools. 

 

"When a child has spent 10, 15 years going through the kind of trauma they have been through, learning the violence, you know, as default responses to things, we expect a school sometimes in a year or in two months to change them. It is just not possible. No research supports that kind of thing. And what we have got to do is to ensure that the programmes we are putting in place in schools, in communities, in churches, in all the spaces that we can put these programmes in place, that they are sustained and sustainable programmes where we staff them properly, put the kind of resources there properly to ensure that we don't have this thing getting any worse, because it is horrible."