Violence among students not slowing down

Violence among students not slowing down

Although crime is down according to Minister of National Security Marvin Dames, Bahamians are not feeling such decrease, especially when it concerns the men of this country fighting; young and old.

On Wednesday, a video of two young Government High School (GHS) boys fighting each other with an apparent knife and throwing rocks at each other in the open putting bystander in harm’s way, drew much online attention.

Appearing on Beyond The Headlines yesterday, contributor and peace on the streets founder, Pastor Carlos Reid indicated that most school disturbances stem from students being exposed to violence in their homes and not being led by example that violence is not the way to remedy any situation.

“When we look at young people, they are just trying to find themselves.  Who is teaching them and directing them where to go?” Reid asked.

“Chips don’t fall far from the block and the coconut don’t fall far from the tree. When we look at what our environments are breeding there is no surprise in what we see in our schools and what we see on our streets,” Reid highlighted.

Successive governments have not done as much as they could’ve to try and combat this 15-plus years problem in the schools by creating more conflict resolution platforms.

“Successive administrations have failed to address this. Even when we look at our schools… we don’t have conflict resolutions, that’s not a mandated subject and it needs to be because the climates are proof that it needs to be there.”

Children and Youth Ministries Consultant Pastor Ricardo Miller added that the late Pastor Myles Munroe always preached, “where purpose is unknown, abuse is inevitable” implicating that many Bahamians have no sense of direction in their lives.

“I think it’s evident that we have a lot of young people coming up in our society who don’t know who they are and I think it’s attached to a lot of parents having no clue as to what they were gaining responsibility of,” Miller said.

“There are children raising themselves who actually need the support of the parent, the school, the church and the government to help them to get to where they belong (maturity).

“… but most of these kids are left to themselves.”

Watson expounded that there is an obvious disconnect between the role school administration and teachers play in regards to rearing a child into a responsible, mature adult.

“… and it appears that the lopsided approach doesn’t work.  What I mean by that is, you can have a great school, have a great teacher but if you don’t have that support at home, then you (the child/student) has to battle with which method to follow.

Reid also opined that many Bahamian children are confused.

“What they are celebrated for in school, they are ridiculed for at home and what they are celebrated at home for, they are ridiculed at school for,” he asid.

According to Reid, after a certain age, children are no longer ‘moved’ by what their parents to impart but rather seek praises from their peers.

“Our young people could care less about the next day.

However, Miller who now resides in Fortworth, Texas noted that not every student is a “bad apple” and celebrated what students are doing well and, what “the police are doing right.”