MONTEGO BAY, St James – Children from across western Jamaica have identified the threat of violence at home and school as well as widescale abuse by parents and teachers as the main threats to their well-being, resulting in a denial of their basic human rights.

The Office of the Children’s Advocate, which last week held a consultation with over 70 children and some 22 teachers from Westmoreland, Hanover, St James and Trelawny on the new Child Care and Protection Act, said children were fearful for their safety and appealed for protection from physical and emotional abuse and molestation.

Prominent among their concerns were being embarrassed at school by teachers who would beat them over homework, not following instructions, not turning in their work on time or getting school work wrong.

The children also complained that they suffered embarrassment from parents coming to school to quarrel with school officials and were traumatised by violence in schools, verbal abuse from teachers and favouritism.

On the home front, children reported being under threat of being killed, some of them from reprisal for having witnessed killings, being severely beaten by parents, and fear of walking the streets, attending friends’ birthday parties or engaging in extra-curricular activities that would find them out of their homes at nights.

There was also the complaint about community dances which kept them up at nights and prevented them from studying.

Among the participants at last Wednesday’s consultation held at the Wexford Hotel in the second city were 22 teachers, predominantly guidance counsellors and principals. Their major concerns were children coming to school without lunch money, suffering from low self-esteem, behavioural problems, violence in society spilling over into the schools, as well as verbal abuse by some teachers.

They also identified lack of proper parenting, and absence from school as critical problems and again called for parents to be held accountable for their children’s actions.

The forum was also attended by representatives of UNICEF and the Family Court and was facilitated by Mary Royes-Henry, investigating officer at the Office of the Children’s Advocate.