CHILDREN BEHAVING BADLY

Near fatal stabbings, prestige school clubbing, a schoolboy
gang-attack on a family, book bags with loaded firearms, the brutal
beating of a drunken old man, the smashing of a teacher's car with a
metal dustbin, female fist-fights over jewelry and romance and the
assault of a police officer by a gang of students have all served to
colour the landscape of school crime and violence in Trinidad for the
past two years.

Mentorship programmes, a heightened police presence and increased
psychological measures have all been instituted but many fear that
these are not attacking the root of the problem which some say
revolves around communities, parenting, literacy and teacher absenteeism.

According to National Parent Teacher Association President Zena
Ramatali, problems which exist outside the schools' walls are being
imposed on the school environment.

"The drug culture is affecting a lot of schools, there are some
children who live in those settings. I spoke to one teacher who said
that his school had a drug problem. When they thought that the drugs
were from an outside person they found out that a student was selling
marijuana. The student explained that he makes $8,000 a term selling
marijuana," lamented Ramatali.

Ramatali added, "there is a serious lack of parental involvement in
schools. If parents are involved and checking in the schools, that
would alleviate a lot of the problems."

The grim picture was reinforced by Principal's Association President
Trevor Oliver.

Oliver indicated that, "There are a number of delinquent parents out
there. The blame has to be placed in part on many fathers because
they have abandoned the home front. In some cases children are
stealing and taking those things home and the parents are not even
pulling them up."

Acting Assistant Superintendent Haynes Fraser, head of the Trinidad
and Tobago Drug Abuse Resistance Educa-tion (DARE) Programme, also
highlighted the parental and community issue as affecting the school
environment.

The trained police counsellor said that, "One of the major problems
we see is home management. Some officers will tell you that there are
cases where parents have to leave home early and the children are
unsupervised for long periods and have low self-esteem. They bring
that problem into the school."

"If the youths are exposed to drugs or other substances in terms of
alcohol or marijuana within their community it will affect how they
deal with issues with their peers in the school. The Community Police
are working together with the schools to curb this behaviour," added Fraser.

The behaviour includes the possession of arms and ammunition. In late
2004 15-year-old Angelo Noel was stabbed in the head and face by a
14-year-old schoolmate at the Diego Martin Junior Secondary School.

In mid 2005 a 16-year-old student of the Carapichaima Senior
Comprehensive School was held at the school and later charged for
possession of a loaded gun.

Intense programmes and random searches conducted by police and
security officers, all aimed at alleviating the problem of weapons in
schools however failed to prevent a kitchen knife from being thrust
into the back of 13-year-old Jerome Galston on the Belmont Junior
Secondary compound. The most chilling of the reported details was
that the stabbing was done by a 13-year-old.

Beyond the consensus on the impact of external factors, conditions
within the school were cited as being in need of reform.

"In October Minister (H) Manning said that there are alot of angry
children in the system. If that is the case we need more social
workers and guidance counselors. The Ministry is working on
de-shifting, and it is needed now. When we look at Marabella Junior
Secondary, they had alot of violent incidents but after the school
was de-shifted we are not hearing any violence from them," said Ramatali.

Marabella Junior Secondary experienced several incidents including
the arrest of 15 students after a massive brawl in 2004. Increased
Community Policing interventions and several efforts by the Ministry
of Education have been implemented since.

When attempts were made to contact the school's principal Sunday
Newsday was told that he was unavailable due to, "rushing around for
the end of the term."

Ramatali went on to cite remedies which included, "more remedial teachers."

"They cannot cope. students cannot read or write well. Too many are
weak in numeracy and literacy skills, many of those who engage in
violence are those who perform poorly in school."

On the issue of literacy and its impact Fraser expressed the view
that, "alot of the students have poor literacy skills. I was
suggesting that the schools try to create a development programme
where the students will be able to get hands on skills whether
electrical, sewing, masonry. If they use some of these practical
things like music drama, art, or sports, it would raise their self esteem."

Oliver added, "if children are not at the literacy level that they
should be this is a cause for restlessness and causes indiscipline in
the school system.

Oliver went on to highlight the need to ensure that literacy becomes
a focus of primary school education in Primary schools. To deal with
the matter the Principal's Association has established a literacy
campaign which Oliver hopes will address the issue.

While illiteracy plays a major role Oliver believes that if the
violent tendencies can be overcome through a student, teacher synergy
and effort by the student to learn.

"Children must be interested in learning. Teachers must make the
educational content so attractive that children are glued to
learning. Where teachers are deficient thy have to buck up, and
principals have to create the right environment for this to happen,"
said Oliver.

Teacher absenteeism was cited by Ramatali to be one of the main
reasons why, at Junior Secondary Schools in particular, there are so
many violent incidents.

"Many of the incidents have to do with absentee teachers. We see
these incidents occurring on a block where there is not a single teacher."

Following the issue of the "High Risk School" list by the Ministry of
Education coupled with widespread media coverage of violent incidents
in the Junior Secondary schools has led to further stigmatisation.
The perception may however be skewed.

One of the few reports of violence coming out of a prestige school
was in May of this year when a 13-year-old student of St Mary's
College was reportedly beaten with a piece of iron by a classmate.

When asked about the reason why almost all such reported incidents
come out of the Junior Secondary schools Fraser replied, "it seems to
suggest that prestige schools tend to manage those incidents, but
really and truly, incidents are coming out of those schools."

The Police Inspector cited very recent incidents in which students
from other schools began robbing students of two "prestige schools"
saying that these events are reported while the internal incidents
between students of these schools don't usually reach the police.

Along with the DARE Programme the Peace Promotion Programme, formerly
known as the School Intervention Strategy Unit, of the Ministry of
Education, is continuing efforts to directly address violence and
indiscipline in schools.