A few bad apples - Hurting students causing trouble at Holy Trinity

Corey Robinson, Staff Reporter

A small group of miscreants is making teaching difficult at the Holy Trinity High School in the Corporate Area. School officials say about 70 out of a population of 1,400 students have their hearts hardened and are difficult to deal with.

Most, if not all, of these problem students have been hit by the death - in many cases, the murder - of a loved one, and it's that pain that plays out as violence and disobedience in the classrooms, charged Margaret Brissett-Bolt, principal of the institution.

"Every child that comes into my office has been affected by death. And they have not learned to cope, to grieve properly," revealed Brissett-Bolt, affectionately called 'Mother of Mercy' by the students and teachers who seek her guidance on stressful days.

MAKING LEARNING DIFFICULT

"We have some hardened students who it's like you can't reach their hearts. But they are in the minority," continued the principal.

"But they disturb a whole class. If you have two of them in a class then that class cannot function. By the time they get in there, they push the chairs, and they quarrel and they make noise, and the teacher can't teach," she explained, her face a disappointed grimace.

"It is those students who continue to push Holy Trinity's image into disrepute," continued Brissett-Bolt.

They are the students who may one day feature in a survey - like one done recently done by the Jamaica Constabulary Force and presented in Parliament by Education Minister Ronald Thwaites - which links the majority of adult inmates in the country's penal system to some schools.

Brissett-Bolt was quick to argue that all schools across the island suffer from such groups of students.

She was not afraid to explain Holy Trinity's unique situation and the many interventions - such as counsel from the Violence Prevention Alliance and from psychiatrist Dr Wendel Abel - that the school has employed to assist such students.

"Some of the methods work, while some do not," said the principal.

"If we really are to go by the rules; half of these students would be sent out and separated from us. But I can't afford that. And even those still have a heart," she said, responding to allegations of a block at one penal institution being named after the school. It's alleged that only students from the Holy Trinity High occupy that prison block.

Brissett-Bolt explained that in the past, it was mostly students with low Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) results who would be placed at the school by the Ministry of Education.

"And these students come from troubled communities. … Many of them come with low scores from the GSAT, and with all the ills: poor family background, support and so on."

Death is a recurring issue for the students, Brissett-Bolt emphasised.

"One young lady, she was in fourth form, came to me and was telling me how her boyfriend died," told the principal. "She was in a fight and when she came into my office she said 'Miss, I'm angry. I'm angry because my boyfriend dead. Dem kill him and him gone and nobody not saying anything …'."

'WE HAVE FAILED HER'

Brissett-Bolt said that she followed up with a few questions regarding the circumstances of the boyfriend's death, his age and so on. But she was only to find out that the boyfriend was killed three years earlier.

"And yet she is still talking like it is now, like it is a present-day thing. She is still reacting at fourth form. So somehow we have failed her. Somebody should have helped her and now it is coming out as violence."

The principal pointed to another incident in which a male student was behaving boisterously, cursing off the teacher and disturbing the class. "And when he came to me he was high (on ganja)".

According to Brissett-Bolt, the recent survey about the number of past Holy Trinity students now serving time in juvenile facilities ironically helped to secure investors and corporate support for the school.

But more help, especially mentorship, is needed to help bolster the students' morale and confidence.

"Yes, we have students with destructive behaviour. Yes, we have students who are hurting every day. We at Holy Trinity High School don't deny that is so, but we are putting programmes in place. We are working with the students, teachers and parents and we need John Public to help us, not to knock us down. When they see our children on the road, don't be afraid to stop, talk to them, and big them up positively," she said.