St. James High's Successes By By Janet Silvera, Freelance Writer WESTERN BUREAU - With a history of gang-related violence and a group of underachieving students, Montego Bay's St. James High was a school for failing teenagers on a fast boat to the fringes and underbelly of society. It was the type of institution that most parents tried to keep their children out of, and from which past students have kept a cool distance. That is, until now. These days St. James High is the talk of Montego Bay, not because of its failigs but because of its A team. The team staged a formidable battle of words earlier this year, using cool logic, wit and impassioned arguments to make it to the finals of the National Schools' Debate competition. In the end, the trio of Grade Nine students, who had won the verbal combat against mainly Sixth Form students on their way up, succumbed to the boys of Munro College in a nail-biting finale. The first hint of the revolution within came in 1998, again through sheer talk, when the school placed second in the Schools' Debate contest. Hardly anybody noticed then, but in recent years St. James High has been sending out louder signals that it's a force to be reckoned with. "We were now in the DaCosta cup finals, Western Basketball Junior and Senior finals and Lawn Tennis", said Principal Hugh Dawes. The school has been crowned KFC Western Basketball Association Region Champions 2001, it has also won the Presidents Cup in the Western Basketball Knock-out League, and copped the prize for being the most disciplined netball team. Violence has also decreased and parents who feared sending their children to the school are now giving it their stamp of approval. "There are less fights among students, the principal is more strict with children, and the majority of the students behave much better on the streets", said Grade Ten student Philip Edwards. "We basically had an image problem, we have had incidences of violence, but were not unique, in that comparable violence may have happened at other schools but was not given the same amount of attention, as if it were to happen here", Principal Dawes told Youth Link. THE SCHOOL HAS GONE THROUGH FIVE STAGES St. James High has gone through five different stages of the educational system Montego Bay Senior, Montego Bay Junior Secondary, New Secondary, Montego Bay Comprehensive and finally, St. James High. When the school became a comprehensive, a noticeable psychological shift was seen among the students. A discernible improvement in self-esteem and attitudes, encompassed the new uniforms, but the marked paradigm shift was more pronounced when the school became a High School in 1999. The school population felt it had now established parity with the other high schools in the Montego Bay basin, said Mr. Dawes. The students were bent on showing only the positives, he added. The proof, several trophies, stands in the principals office. "We are very proud of our success, we would like the public to think positively of us", said Mr. Dawes. THE ROAD FORWARD "We want to bring the academic performance in line with sporting and vocational, we want to think that our success in the debating competition is an index of our capacity to perform academically", said the principal. Info-Tech is to be added to the school's curriculum as of this coming September, and the school recently started offering CXC in English and Spanish. "Personally, I think the community of Montego Bay needs to begin to appreciate the school in a more positive way", said Rev. Calvin Brown, one of the coaches of the debating team.
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