WESTERN BUREAU:
AS THE students dressed in the brown plaid uniform make their way around Montego Bay to or from school, people are watching and whispering.
Some don't even bother to whisper. It is not uncommon for a student of the school to be walking down the streets of the second city and hear someone shout derogatory remarks at them. You see, there is a stigma attached to the St. James High school located in the parish of the same name.
With security guards patrolling the compound and metal detectors being used to search the bags of students, it is easy to see why the institution is seen in a negative light. What is not easy to see is the dedication of teachers, and the willpower of the students to function in an almost warlike environment.
Leeroy Williams has been the acting principal at St. James High since September 2002, but has been teaching at the school for 31 years. In an interview with The Sunday Gleaner last week, he readily admitted that indiscipline is a major problem at the school, and that it is becoming increasingly difficult to police the school and teach at the same time.
RULES AND REGULATION
"What we need to realise is that these students are coming from every sector of the society, and some of them come with that sort of maladaptive behaviour which is a reflection of what is happening in the society today. So they come here and the few hours that we interface with them as teachers we try and mould them and to try to get them to conform to rules and regulations which is very difficult," Mr. Williams explained.
For the students, it requires double effort to learn in such a hostile environment. Seventeen-year-old Shemika Bell is the head girl at St. James High. She is also the student council president and plans to sit eight subjects at CXC this year. The rampant indiscipline at the school, is hardly a deterrent to Shemika, an aspiring neurosurgeon. She is using her experiences at the school to prepare her for 'the real world' - adulthood.
"I feel as if I am actually experiencing what it is like to be in the real world, outside of school, and in the wider community," Shemika told The Sunday Gleaner. "I see myself as building up for what's happening outside of school because here you have violence and you have students who are trying to be the best they can be and I think this is what's happening in the society."
The public's negative perception of the school is very discouraging to students like Shemika. St. James High students are usually the recipients of harsh comments from members of the public, many of whom see a school of delinquents and non-achievers.
DISCRIMINATION
"There are some times when I am discriminated against because of what other students do. Like for instance I might be walking downtown and some people might look at me a certain way because of the uniform that I am wearing, but within myself I know that I am different from a lot of the students who are coming here. I use that to try and be the best that I can be," Shemika noted.
Mr. Williams charged parents and the wider community to take responsibility for the behavioural problems in some students, and not to shift the responsibility to the school. After all, as he pointed out, student delinquency is only a reflection of the delinquency in the wider society, and challenged the Montego Bay community to assist the school in cleaning up its image.
"First of all what I want is for the parents who are living in this community to give the school that it deserves," Mr. Williams insisted. "They need to recognise that it is their school, it is their students who are coming here so it doesn't make sense they send them here and then they are saying that so many negatives are happening here. The negatives are happening because the students are bringing it from inside the community and inside the homes."
D.C.
