BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - IN an effort to curb youths involvement in drugs and crime, a new and improved programme will soon be implemented in all primary schools in the twin-island Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
According to Commissioner of Police (CoP) Celvin ‘CG’ Walwyn, the programme, which is called MAGIC - Mentoring Advising Guiding Instructing Children - is one that has been lent to the Federation by Orange County, Florida, which implemented it into their schools two years ago, and apart from assisting the youths in their decision-making with regards to drugs and crimes, it will also be saving the nation a large amount of foreign currency.
"Here in St. Kitts we have certain issues and, because of the issues that we have, we were able to get Orange County through Sheriff Jerry Demings and Lieutenant Julia Blackman to assist us with the training here in the Federation. And the Sheriff has decided to let us use the programme at no cost. In St. Kitts and Nevis, that would be a savings of about EC$42 000 per year."
CoP Walwyn explained that the programme is intended to steer the children in the opposite direction of crime and drug use as well as away from gangs and violence, while noting that a number of officers have been trained by an officer from Orange County to carry out the objective of the programme.
"What we are doing with this programme is we are giving the children alternatives to gangs, drugs, guns, and violence. Basically, what we are going to do is have police officers who have already been trained by Orange County, who sent an instructor here in the form of Sergeant Sean McCormack. He came here for a week and trained 10 of our officers in the use of the MAGIC Programme.
"These officers will be going into the schools and approaching the children from kindergarten to middle school. We are going after the children who are most impressionable in dealing with guns, gangs, drugs and violence. And what we are doing is going between kindergarten and third grade and approach them for 15 minutes per week for 10 weeks. And then the children between ages 10 and 13, we will approach them for 45 minutes per week for 10 weeks. So we are hoping that every child in every school will be able to take part in these exercises," he explained.
He also stated that MAGIC is a 10-week programme for each child that would be taking part, but the programme itself will be running throughout the entire school year and would be implemented in September at the beginning of the school year.
The Commissioner further stated that the children would be engaging in a variety of topics with regards to personality and decision-making, and that they would also be given assignments to work on.
"We are giving them the tools to help them make the right decision not to get involved in drugs, gangs, guns, and violence. Those four levels are what we are going to be dealing with. The children are going to be engaging if different topics that relate to attitude and choice. In everything we do we make a choice…we are going to be giving them the tools to help them make the right choices," he elucidated.
He went on to say that St. Kitts and Nevis are the only Caribbean islands to be implementing the programme and, if successful, it would be extended to the other Caribbean islands.
When asked about a programme for the students attending high schools, CoP Walwyn said that MAGIC does not apply to the high school students and that the Force does not have a programme for them, but it is currently designing one that would best suit them.
"We don't have a programme for the high schools with MAGIC, because if we catch the children before they get to the high schools then we would have achieved our goal. In the high schools we are hoping to move the children towards acting right and choosing careers as opposed to trying to stop them from doing things and going to jail.
"Delinquency prevention programmes are what we are looking into for high schools but, for now, we don't have one of those."
Commissioner Walwyn said that the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force hopes to have less crime and violence, less gang activities and more children growing up to be respectable men and women.
"What we would like to see as a Police Force and as a community is less young men dying on the streets. We are hoping that through the use of the MAGIC programme we can save at least one life. We would like to save as many as we can but even if we save one…that is one citizen who can grow up to be productive. He may even become the next Police Commissioner, but we have to start somewhere.
"Our aim, our goal through using the MAGIC Programme is to give the children the tools to making the right decision, to staying alive and staying out of trouble."
