Time to arrest violence in schools

Feb 21, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
It is with much concern that I observe the recent upsurge of violence being committed by students on their colleagues within the confines of our city’s schools.
This ugly phenomenon, if not nipped in the bud will eventually become cancerous in our educational system and the time to arrest it is now.
Over the past month there had been at least three incidents of such nature where the use of weapons was most evident. I recall that it was only last week there was an incident which was reported about a deadly weapon being found in the school bag of a teenager at a school.
I have also read in our newspapers that there is a certain school in Georgetown where the teachers are afraid for their lives due to the threats they receive from students (both present and past).
These students congregate in the school’s compound. I have also read in the newspapers that at one particular school the teachers have boxes of weapons which were seized from students. There is also the surge of gangs in some schools.
It would be remiss of me not to ask the most germane question at this time: “what is really going on in our schools today?” I have not to date seen or heard of any special programme by the authorities to harness this situation which will eventually affect our society in a most debilitating manner.
I can recall during my time at school, parents took their time to ensure that the level of discipline of their children was of a relatively high standard. Sad to say, this hardly happens in our society today. Parents are responsible to ensure that their children are good products for our society.
The neglecting of such guidance has created the problems we are having now. There is an urgent need for parents to be more involved in their young children’s lives. They should attend the Parent Teacher’s meetings and make regular visits to their children’s schools and be more active in that respect.
The guardians of our city’s schools stand indicted to take a more pro-active stance as it relates to the well being of all teachers and students.
To merely address the issue in a manner as if it is not a huge one may be courting disaster. There is an immediate need for draconian steps to be made in this extant situation because, consequently, we may eventually find ourselves having to declare a national day of mourning for a disaster at one of our schools if our schools’ guardians continue to fiddle while Rome burns.
Orin Major

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