Reducing violence in schools

Feb 16, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
There is of course no single legal offence of ‘violence’. Various statutes and common law allow for the offences ranging from common assault (which may involved no more than momentary physical contact) through grievous bodily harm, murder and manslaughter.
It is the problem of defining violence that has led to the most difficulty in measuring the problem and interpreting the academic studies that have been conducted.
It is a highly subjective concept open to varying degrees of interpretation and this includes the way violence in school is defined.
The Library Association (1987) took a very wide view by including all sorts of anti social behaviour ranging from spitting, damage to furniture or playing radios to theft, verbal abuse and physical attack.
Violence in schools is of concern to the Ministry of Education and it is a source of controversy among teachers. While no nationwide study of the real extent of school violence is available, violence in and around schools threatens the well being of students and teachers.
Students do not focus on rigorous standards, perform at high academic levels, or even stay in school. It is reasonable to assume that when teachers and students are more concerned about their safety at schools than about education, it is not possible to concentrate on teaching or learning.
However, despite sensational anecdotal media reports suggesting that violence in schools is making them unsafe, it is not as pervasive as is feared.
Some teachers who spend their workdays in schools think that they are among the safest places a child can be, despite this increasing attention that is being given to violence in schools.
Government, trade unions and parents teachers associations are also giving increasing attention to violence in schools. This is evident when The Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union convened an emergency meeting to discuss school violence (Daily Nation, Monday, February 19th, 2001). Violence was also of concern to officials in the Ministry of Education when one education official reported in the Barbados Advocate on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2001 ‘School Choas’. It is also evident where schools are now employing private security guards and the installing of security fences to protect staff and students against any form of violence.
There is a social crisis because institutions like the schools are no longer authoritative. As a result, today’s young people have no background, no designs for the future and no fabric to their lives. They turn on those who are in authority, for example teachers.
Schools are still obviously a stronghold and the core of our society. I believe that these acts of violence by students are closely linked to confused feelings about institutional violence.
Violence among young people in society is increasing dramatically. Perhaps what is most alarming is that these violent acts are not occurring on the streets but in the schools as well. In earlier times school violence merely involved delinquency and the occasional fist fight.
However, school violence has become a problem, which has plagued our schools for the past several years.
There has been an increase in the amount and the degree of violence. Students are now bringing to school guns, knives and other weapons and are using them to hurt or kill their classmates.
With incidents like the shooting rampage in Littleton, Colorado the public has become increasingly concerned with ways of predicting and reducing violence in schools.
As a matter of fact, some schools are exploding with untold cruelty, criminality and violence as troubled students carry the ills of their homes and neighbourhoods into the classrooms. As a consequence, students with deformed psyches, a manifestation of which is a negative gamut of self-hatred, self-doubt determination to destroy self and others, now hold countless teachers hostage. This is very disturbing within our educational system.
While it is the opinion of some that our schools should resort to the use of metal detectors, security guards, random checks of bags as well as the construction of school fences, in an effort to combat school violence though possibly useful, I am afraid that these are not sufficiently proactive a strategy despite their effectiveness.
The ultimate goal then is to ensure that schools are safe and violence-free, and a more proactive approach to violence in schools is crucial.
The opinions of teachers, their trade unions and school boards are of the view that the removal of corporal punishment from schools lead to an increase in violent behaviour.
These views were highlighted by the Presbyterian School Board in the Trinidad Express on the 8th February 2003 when Chaguaramas Mayor, Orlando Nagessar chairman of the Presbyterian Primary School Board of Education, said, “teachers had to deal with an increase of indiscipline in schools because of the banning of corporal punishment and teaching is becoming more challenging”.
His views were recently supported by the retiring headmaster of the St. James Secondary School in Barbados when he stated in the Sunday Sun on the 14th September 2003.
As a result of this, certain immediate measures can be implemented which could assist in the reduction of crime and more specifically violence.
Staff meetings should discuss measures and strategies this will ensure that security awareness is continually heightened.
Staff should be trained in personal safety techniques; reading body language; calmly assessing volatile situation and how to react effectively to an attack.
The school curriculum should be designed to teach personal safety techniques, which will help to control and modify aggressive behaviour and encourage students to think before they act.
Furthermore, schools should have a carefully defined reporting system for recording and monitoring incidents.
This should be considered in the security audit which will allow retrospective analysis of problems faced by schools.
There are many more security measures that could be implemented which will see a reduction in school violence.
Morris Springer

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