More investment in social transformation needed to curb violence - Wright

By Racquel Porter   

 

President of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (JAPSS), Linvern Wright, says a greater level of investment in social transformation is needed as opposed to asking educators to be crime-fighters.

 

He was responding to reports of a seven-year-old boy being found with a submachine gun at a school in St. Elizabeth last week.

 

Noting that no amount of metal detectors will safeguard the nation's children, Mr. Wright said the device will only provide some level of psychological comfort.

 

He lamented that authorities have failed to implement social structures that will transform minds.

 

Mr. Wright argued that successive governments have done little to ensure Jamaicans are safe and have general peace of mind. 

 

"We build communities, and you know, it's not even safe to walk, because we build communities, we don't have proper community centres that are maintained for people to go and socialise so that we can talk out things. We don't have those kinds of centres, we don't invest in that kind of thing. We put up a million buildings, we put up a million houses, but we don't really have homes. We put up a million houses, but we don't have spaces for people to just go and... have some kind of therapy that helps us to live much better with each other," he asserted.   

 

Radio Jamaica News was informed that fear has gripped the St. Elizabeth school, with the teacher who discovered the firearm having resigned with immediate effect.

 

Reports reaching Radio Jamaica News are that threats have been issued against school officials and community members in relation to the incident.

 

Mr. Wright believes the incident could further exacerbate teacher migration as educators are not only concerned about pay, but also their safety in what appears to be an increasingly violent society. 

 

"There are still several schools who don't have mathematics teachers, who don't have many, many teachers, and when they hear this kind of thing, it is just going to be so much easier for them to go. I don't have the answer to that except that we have got to solve this problem of violence and crime in this country," insisted the educator.