Oberlin High community comes together to ‘Let Peace Run Things’
Published:Wednesday | March 6, 2024 | 12:08 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
The Oberlin High School in West Rural St Andrew yesterday conducted a Peace Day event that rekindled the enthusiasm of administrators, guidance counsellors, students, and the community to ‘Let Peace Run Things’, as the national slogan puts it.
March 5 was declared Peace Day by the Ministry of Education and Youth, in partnership with Peace and Love in Society (PALS) Jamaica and schools islandwide were tasked with incorporating Peace Day activities into their school schedules for students to engage in.
Ferron Hunter, one of the institution’s guidance counsellors, told The Gleaner that it was the wish of most individuals for society to return to the days when the community, the Church, and other individuals worked together with schools to ensure that the nation’s youth were being raised in the most appropriate and acceptable manner.
“We want to get back to the days where the village raises a child [and] is coming on board because school cannot do it by themselves, so we have to partner with the home and the community,” Hunter said.
In addition, Hunter stated that events like this one will surely contribute to the fostering of peace, love, and unity in school environments, considering the volume of “heartbreaking” news stories published by the media about young people in society who are displaying problematic behavioural patterns.
“If we can have that sense of community and togetherness, I believe that we will be able to run things because the theme this year was let peace run things and we said to all, ‘come mek we run the peace’. So, most definitely, the initiative will go a far way,” he said.
Last year, the school simply organised a peace march but this year the coordinators sought to up their game by inviting other schools to participate, such as Unity Preparatory School, Lawrence Tavern Primary and the Eagles Excellent Preparatory and Kindergarten School.
They also organised a peace concert in the open lot across from the Lawrence Tavern Police Station in addition to the peace march.
“For our Peace Day activity, we thought it was best to step a little bit outside of our school environment to promote peace in our community and within the other schools,” he said.
The concert included guest speakers and a wide range of other activities which promoted “peace amongst all”.
Nearly 500 students across all participating schools were said to have shown up for the concert and march.
After the early morning activities, during lunchtime the children inscribed messages on an established peace wall.
A netball match was set up after school to promote good sportsmanship and teamwork.
Kadian Graham DaCosta, senior guidance counsellor at Oberlin, could hardly contain her delight as she spoke with The Gleaner, expressing her feelings of joy over the success of the day’s activities.
SCHOOL COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIP
She reinforced the importance of schools having close relationships with their surrounding communities and said the school was heavily involved with police officers, justices of the peace, and Community Development Committee (CDC) members because integrating all stakeholders was her top priority.
“You have people within the community that have nobody at Oberlin that will come and say ‘I have a problem and I need you to help me to work through the problem’. So, because of where we are located... it means that we have to provide some service to the community that enhances the community,” she said.
She stated that the youngsters, particularly those who require direction and support, were responding well to this type of community involvement approach.
“You see children, when children know that mommy, daddy, neighbour, community members, teachers, principal, VP (vice principal), guidance [counsellors] are working together, you get a better result from them,” Graham DaCosta said.
She continued that this encouraged children to have respect for their elders, which in turn produced more disciplined students.
With sights already on next year’s Peace Day, Hunter stated that he was looking to go even bigger and better and hopes to get on board the Church and the restorative justice arm of the Ministry of Justice to speak with the children on topics related to fostering peace in the community.
Graham DaCosta noted that the institution was eager to kick off the second staging of its ‘Community Link Up’ initiative, which features sporting and other social activities and includes representatives of the National Council on Drug Abuse and community leaders and members.
“It takes a village to raise a child and we are saying it takes a community to ensure that our school is on top of things,” she said.