THE teachers’ union has complained of a worsening pattern of violence in Jamaican schools, including attacks on teachers and the murder and rape of students.

So bad has the problem become that three students were killed at school during the past academic year and there were several other incidents of attacks on both students and teachers, resulting in least 25 cases of injuries, according to a report prepared by the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA).

There were also nearly 40 cases where students have been attacked by other students or members of the school’s host community and 17 cases in which teachers were the victims. But these incidents do not necessarily reflect the extent of the problem, as they were based only on reports filed with the JTA.

Rape of female students by other students, the report said, was a regular occurrence, but it gave no data.

The report, written by Patrick Smith, the JTA’s secretary for teachers and schools services, called for urgent government action to stem the wave of campus violence, including the removal of troublesome students and the restriction of entry to school premises. Smith served as JTA president between 1997 and 1998.

School grounds should be fenced and entry and exit points manned by unarmed guards, said the report.

It is not the first time that the JTA or other teacher’s groups have addressed the problem of violence in schools, leading a number of initiatives to deal with the problem.

These have included proposals for the searching of students, limiting access to outsiders and throwing the full weight at the law on students and parents who engage in campus violence.

The education ministry, three years ago, also launched a ‘time-out’ programme where particularly disruptive students would be taken from school for a specific period for specialist help and last year, in conjunction with the National Youth Service, ran a boot camp-type scheme for 180 particularly disruptive students.

However, there has been no public assessment of the results of all the initiatives and the complaints suggests that the problem has grown worse in recent years.

Smith argued that violence in Jamaican schools is not a new phenomenon — it is just that it has got substantially worse, mirroring the behaviour in the wider community.

In the past violence in schools involved things such as “ragging”, a sort of rite of passage for new or junior students, or rivalry between classes, houses or groups of students.

“Nowadays these seemingly benign incidences have assumed sinister dimensions,” he said.

According to the Smith, the cause of violence in Jamaican schools ranges from the effort by students to “capture” or retain classroom furniture, to extortion, community feuds which spill over into schools and sheer intimidation.

“It is not uncommon in some ‘garrisoned’ communities for class to be interrupted by gunmen chasing other gunmen through the school compound during school hours,” Smith reported. “Students and teachers have been injured during several of these encounters.”

But in some cases classroom violence flowed from inadequate furniture in schools. “From primary to secondary schools, there are fights arising out of removal of chairs and desks from one classroom to another or even within classrooms,” Smith said.

Extortion was one variant of violence, which, according to Smith, had become “endemic” but shrouded in a “code of silence”.

“Older children prey upon younger ones,” he said. “Protection money is paid by weaker students to stronger and older ones. Money is extorted by bullying and many children have lost valuable personal possessions in this way.”

But such intimidation exists for students not only in schools. Sometimes host communities “exact a toll” from commuting students, especially in cases where the victims are from a community with which the hosts have tensions. One consequence of this is students carrying weapons.

Added Smith: “Increasingly, therefore, spot searches reveal a variety of weapons. Students are employed by members of warring communities as conduits for weapons as well as drugs since students often evade police cordons and searches. So students are becoming prey for criminal gangs who try to seize those weapons and drugs.”

Gender-based violence was also a cause for concern, said Smith.

He said: “Rape of female students by students occur on a regular basis. These are on a individual basis as well as gang-related. This is perpetrate by either students or community — this is gang — members.”

Intimidation by community gangs as well as the “code of silence” undermined the proper investigation of such cases, Smith said.

The JTA has recommended that:

* All educational institutions be adequately fenced with restricted entry and exit points manned by unarmed guards;

* All institutions have a reception area to which all visitors (including parents) report. Visitors must not have direct access to classrooms;

* All institutions be fitted with ramps to assist the disabled and that the sanitary conveniences be similarly equipped;

* Fire and earthquake drills be part the school routine;

* The educational authorities established standards of specification for furniture supplied to schools;

* Class size be limited to no more than 20 students per teacher to ensure the efficient delivery of the education process;

* Where institutions are in breach of the minimum standards to which the educational authorities have made a commitment, the unions shall instruct teachers to withdraw labour until such breaches are corrected;

* Students who are assessed as being a threat to the safety of teachers and students be removed from the institution and be placed in special facilities with programmes for behaviour modification and rehabilitation;

* All schools in the urban and semi-urban areas be provided with 24-hour security services;

* Schools highlight the issue of bullying and that guidance counsellors be provided with special training to deal with students who display this behaviour; and

* Teachers be provided with legal representation by the Government if action is taken against them by parents or students in defending their person or property.