Grant suggests JPs become mentors in schools
Published:Thursday | February 23, 2023 | 12:05 AMLeon Jackson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Trelawny Lay Magistrates Association President Kenneth Grant is becoming increasingly concerned about what seems like an increase in the number of videos circulating showing schoolchildren engaging in acts of violence.
“I am concerned about the amount of violence I see on social media, and what I know that has happened in Trelawny, which has resulted in death and a student being imprisoned,” said Grant, referring to a fatal stabbing at a high school in the parish last March.
Footage of several other bloody brawls, including at least one other which turned out to be fatal, have also been circulated on social media in recent months.
Fearing that school violence could be getting too prevalent, with a recent case of assault at Denham Town High School in Kingston, Grant is calling for urgent action to tackle the issue, proposing that justices of the peace should align themselves with educational institutions and mentor the students.
“They can go into the schools and speak to the students on anger management. We are agents of peace, and it is incumbent on us to maintain peace as much as possible,” the businessman said.
Dr Maureen Dwyer, acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education and Youth, told The Gleaner that the recommendation was worth considering.
She also outlined measures that have been put in place to address violence in the nation’s schools.
“We have child diversion, guidance and counselling, and restorative justice all aligned to keep children who may have behavioural problems, which result in trauma, treated. Of course, we welcome persons qualified to be among children, helping to change behaviours. This, however, will have to be in partnership with what already exists,” said Dwyer.
Leighton Johnson, the Jamaica Teachers’ Association president-elect, who is also principal of the Trelawny-based Muschett High School and a justice of the peace, says he stands ready to support any initiative designed to reduce violence in schools.
“Anything that can be done to help students handle the way they deal with anger is welcomed,” he told The Gleaner. “I will appreciate the initiative in my school and work to make a success of it.”
Michael James, the principal of Wakefield Primary, which is a feeder school to Muschett High, is also ready to embrace Grant’s recommendation.
He, however, noted that the students are reflecting what they see around them in their home communities.
“The students come to us a product of their environment and we have to be the agent of change for maladjusted behaviour,” said James. “Any intervention that can guide children along a path that makes them become responsible citizens must be good, and it has my full support.”