THE TOTAL disregard and disrespect for authority in our nation took a new turn with the incident at Immaculate Conception school for girls. The fact that girls thought that it funny to spit in a teacher's water bottle at no lesser place than Immaculate is of serious concern. This is so not only because we expect better from Immaculate, because of its high standards and almost impeccable reputation, but also because the act signifies a total breakdown of the usual respectable relationship between students and their school authority.
What has brought the incident to light is the demonstration by the teachers apparently protesting when two of the three girls who were suspended returned to school. The third girl apparently opted to withdraw from school after the school board had determined that suspension was the appropriate punishment.
The protest apparently was what prompted the intervention of the Ministry of Education seeking to ascertain the facts about the teacher's demonstration. The teachers feel, and with good reason, that expulsion is warranted, but the Jamaica Teachers' Association president-elect Ruel Reid sees it within the province of the school board which has the authority to deal with such internal matters.
If, as our own reporter ascertained, the girls managed to distract the attention of the teacher in class so that the spitting could be done, it shows a level of conspiracy that goes beyond mere indiscipline. There is more than a modicum of malice that is the more revolting when the possible health hazards are considered.
The act also calls in question the mindset of a school board exercising judgement that evokes the understandable anger of the Immaculate teachers.
There has been general concern about school discipline to the point where in recent months a police programme has been instituted in some communities. Much of the problem has to do with the environs in violence-prone sectors of the Corporate Area; but it is clear that the problem goes beyond these places. The incident at Immaculate has reached a new low, the more shocking that it has happened at a prominent institution in an upscale neighbourhood.
Indiscipline in schools must be stomped out without delay or prejudice. Our nation cannot afford any more of our youngsters falling into waywardness, and the strongest message of intolerance for such actions must be sent without delay. It is on this point that we support the call of the Immaculate Conception teachers.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
