BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – OVER the past several months, videos were circulating portraying school children involved in acts of violence against each other. One of the most recent was between two students of the Cayon High School.a
According to information reaching SKNVibes, both students were expelled and the matter is under police investigation.
Since that video, another was being circulated of two or more students of the Washington Archibald High School and the Basseterre High School, which appears to have taken place along the bottom portion of Victoria Road, Basseterre.
Former Minister of National Security the Hon. G. A. Dwyer Astaphan, who is the founder of Operation Rescue, expressed to this publication his view that these incidents are a direct “manifestation of the malady that we are suffering as a society”.
“We look at TV, the reality shows and all of these other things, conflict, the music, there is so much conflict and confrontation and hostility being peddled that it becomes almost engrained in us and the children are just absorbing that attitude and that lifestyle. You have a progressive breakdown of discipline that has been manifesting itself in our society, and not just here. I was in another Caribbean island (recently) and similar problems.”
He did not lay blame solely at the feet of the education/school system but said because of the way it is structured, it gives more support and guidance to those students who do well and discards the others who end up leaving school with limited social skills, knowledge of civics, self-image and earning skills.
He said this leads to them walking a path of antisocial living; a situation which has become “systemic”.
Astaphan explained that societal norms have changed to the point where people involved in such “antisocial behaviour” are “getting stats and street creds” rather than the behaviour being condemned.
Fixing the problem, Astaphan said, is not and would not be easy.
“The leadership of the country…and that includes not just government and people in the business sector, but people who are leading the various stakeholder groups and enough of us in the country have to reach the point where we say we have to stop this. It’s not an easy fix. It’s a major problem but we have to have discipline in the schools. We have to make parents responsible for the actions of their children. And people in positions of leadership, the decision makers in the country, in all aspects of life have to lay down the rules and insist upon discipline and dignity.
“The media has a role to play in that as well. You listen to the radio sometimes 8:30 in the morning or 3:00 in the afternoon and some of it is nearly X-rated what you hear. How on earth can teachers who are given care and control of these children six or seven hours undo the bad things that are embedded in the children’s minds for the rest of the day?”
The former Minister of Government said in order for the issue to be properly addressed, the bull has to be taken by the horns; something which he opines is not being done.
“We are a society that has been disrupted and dislocated, and somebody has to grab the bull by the horns. And it doesn’t seem, in my estimation, that enough of an effort is being made. Somebody needs to bell the cat and I am not seeing any signs of it, but I am hearing a lot of talk.”
