If there was anyone who doubted the severity of the problem this country faces with violence in schools they would, we believe, be divested of any such misgivings after reading the news pages of this newspaper since Monday this week.

On Tuesday, we reported the vicious stabbing death of 16-year-old Dunoon Technical High School student, Mr Shevon Johnson by a schoolmate on the school compound on Monday.

Coincidentally, it was the same day before that we published photographs showing a large assortment of weapons - knives, scissors, sickles, chisels, imitation guns, a plastic grenade, ammunition, ice picks, machetes, protractors, screwdrivers, cut glass, pepper spray, a catapult and forks - seized by the police from 78 schools in Kingston and St Catherine between mid-September and October 27 this year.
The frightening haul - 764 weapons in total, we were told - resulted from raids carried out by the roving Safe Schools Task Force Unit in collaboration with school resource officers.

The police also reported that they confiscated a quantity of ganja, rolling papers, lighters and plastic capsules used to conceal cocaine, cigarettes, bleaching cream, dice and playing cards.

In yesterday's edition, our picture of Education Minister Andrew Holness at Dunoon High staring at a desk engraved with drawings of two handguns, gave us a scary indication of what occupies the minds of some of our children during the hours when their fertile brains should be engaged in scholarship.

We don't believe that what we have highlighted here represents the majority of the thinking in our schools. For this newspaper, and indeed other media, continuously report on numerous instances of academic excellence at all levels of our education system.

However, the fact that students are taking such dangerous weapons to school - as we have seen in a number of cases, with Dunoon being the latest - and are prepared to use them, speaks to a breakdown of order and lack of respect for the sanctity of life among adolescents that bodes ill for Jamaica's future.

Undoubtedly, these unfortunate incidents in our schools are manifestations of the coarseness that seems to have engulfed the country because students take their cue from the adults who have direct influence over their lives.

It is a point that we have often argued in this space that is worth repeating, because a lot of what we see happening today with our youth have their genesis in bad parenting.
It is not enough, we insist, for parents to believe that their only responsibility to their children is to provide for their material needs and hand over to schools and teachers the task of moulding their children into responsible citizens.

It has to be a partnership, with teachers, of course, assisting in the process of shaping young minds. However, the primary responsibility is that of parents.

Until we are able to get the majority of parents to acknowledge and live up to their responsibility, we fear that the sterling efforts of many people to transform our youngsters into better persons; to recognise that disputes can be settled by dialogue rather than violence; to respect the right of others to live and to have opposing views, will not have the broad impact that is desired.

Two weeks ago, Minister Holness told the country that his ministry had formulated a Parenting Policy to be launched shortly. It can't come too soon, because the Parenting Commission will need all the tools at its disposal if it is to be effective.

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Cream of the 'Crop'

Cheeky's World