By Denise Clarke, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU
INDISCIPLINE IN the society has filtered into the education system, and is to blame for the behavioural problems being exhibited by an increasing number of students, some educators say.
In some schools, the problem of indiscipline has escalated into almost war-like conditions, requiring regular police intervention. Inner-city gangs are also influencing the rebellious behaviour in some students, providing them with access to dangerous weapons including guns, according to the police.
"Here in Montego Bay we don't have a problem of children taking guns to school..." said Inspector Melvin Dennis, the sub-officer in charge of Montego Bay. "...but what we know is that in the communities some of them are parts of gangs, and they might have access to guns."
Inspector Dennis, who regularly interfaces with delinquent students in some schools in the parish, told The Sunday Gleaner that the number of students carrying dangerous weapons to school is climbing. Delinquent behaviour such as drug peddling, ganja smoking, and brawls in which weapons are drawn are being encountered in several schools in the parish, the officer said, but more so in the newly upgraded secondary schools.
"We have seen a significant increase in the number of students, boys especially, who are armed with dangerous weapons such as the Cuban machetes, long knives and icepicks. And some of them because they know that we periodically check on them, they even hide the weapons in the bushes until they are ready for them," Inspector Dennis explained.
METAL DETECTORS
At the St. James High School, metal detectors are now a part of the school's security system, in a bid to unearth potentially deadly weapons from some students. Security guards at the school's gate began scanning students' bags and person in June last year, following the fatal stabbing of a male student by his schoolmate on the school compound.
Acting Principal Leroy Williams has seen all forms of delinquency at the school, from ganja smoking to gang brawls involving all types of offensive weapons. The new security measures, however, have pushed the offenders to find innovative ways to smuggle the weapons into the school.
"What we have found is that the students will walk into areas where they will not be observed by the security guards and what they'll do is throw the weapon over and you will find it on the compound. So even though we are trying very hard not to allow the weapons on the compound, sometimes they do get it in that type of way," Mr. Williams admitted in an interview with The Sunday Gleaner.
St. James High is not the only school struggling to cope with indiscipline. Students and teachers at the Frome Technical High School in Westmoreland, are still trying to recover from a stabbing incident in May last year which seriously tarnished the school's image. The students involved in the fracas were subsequently expelled. However, while the schools are usually the ones at the forefront of the negative publicity when these incidents occur, Frome's Principal, Ricardo Gayle, pointed out that the negative behaviour in some students is a reflection of what they are encountering in the society. In other words, children live what they learn.
"The communities have a lot to do with it... the type of orientation they have, the type of situations they live in. In certain areas where there is the gang influence, where if you are not with it you are against it, all this contributes to it," Mr. Gayle noted.
EXPELLED
The Petersfield High School in Westmoreland has also had its share of problems. In November 2000, four male students were expelled following an assault on a male teacher on the school compound. However, as Principal Basil Chambers tells it, the school has come a far way since then. Now, indiscipline among students is on the decline, and 'outsiders' are the ones causing trouble. As recently as four weeks ago, seven persons armed with machetes entered the school's premises in search of a student who had had a dispute with a schoolmate outside of the school. The police were
summoned just in time to apprehend the trespassers.
"Our main problem this year is not from the indiscipline, it's from the outsiders who come in. The tendency is not for parents or guardians to come to the school anymore and say who is the principal or the vice principal or who is the teacher, the tendency is for them to arm themselves with Cuban machetes, and go into a class, and ask for the children," said Mr. Chambers.
Last month, indiscipline again reared its ugly head in the school system, when a group of flag-waving boys shouting support for Calabar High School in St. Andrew barged on to the premises of Holy Childhood High School and disrupted several classes. Also, earlier this year a student of the Anchovy High School in St. James was seriously wounded by a knife-wielding schoolmate during a brawl at the institution.
