IT IS a sad commentary for any school in this island to be closed even for a day because of community violence. So it is particularly regrettable that several schools had to close for at least three days last week because of the flare-up between rival factions in South St. Andrew.
With the start of what is being marked as 'Education Week' there was an 80 per cent resumption of classes. This took place under heavy police guard and the sound of gunfire, prompting some parents to hold back their children from possible danger.
This, of course, was not the first time schools have fallen victim to community violence. Gun violence forced closure of schools in West Kingston in 1966; and over the years other schools in the Corporate Area have been affected. The latest, and all the others, create the kind of atmosphere that Wentworth Gabbidon, president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association, has declared are not only traumatising for the children but also deprives them of a safe environment conducive to learning.
An angry Omar Davis, MP for the south St. Andrew constituency, berated some of his constituents when he visited last week. He also deplored the effect on the school children and much more. The violence, he said, obstructed several projects, including refurbishing of the Comprehensive Health Clinic and the construction of a new housing scheme.
What is not clear is the extent to which contract work for some of these projects is the source of the contention between the rival factions in the community. What is clear, however, is that the differences can be deadly. At least two killings have been attributed to the so-called turf war.
The MP's exasperation may be typical of the decline of political leadership at grass roots level, especially in the more volatile communities now apparently controlled by so-called 'area leaders'. As we have pointed out before, the inner-city culture of jungle justice is posing a serious threat to the rule of law and a challenge to routine policing.
In recent months there have been flare-ups not only in different sections of the Corporate Area but also in the west end of the island. Flankers and Canterbury in Montego Bay have given the threat a national spread that is too ominous for comfort.
It is deplorable that development projects should not only be affected but that the very benefits they should generate become the spoils of a turf war. It is even more deplorable for school children to suffer the trauma of a school environment racked by gun violence and volatile disorder.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
