Instances of violence among school children have been and still remain an ongoing problem that plagues Jamaica. Recent incidences includes a student being taken into police custody for stabbing his colleague to death at the Penwood High School and more recently the attacking of a Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) bus driver by students from a popular Corporate Area high school.

With these continuous delinquent behaviours, who should be held accountable for the actions of these minors? Should we blame the school and the teachers or parents for their behaviour?

I don’t think we should be blaming the teachers or the parents for bad behaviour in school. The students are at full blame here. They got themselves in these situations not the parents or the teachers.

— Krysta-Leigh Thames

Parents are the first basic teachers for their children. So, I think if anybody is to be blamed, it is them. Children are a reflection of their home surroundings and schools and teachers can only help shape children into better individuals.

— Evon Morgan

I think both are to be blamed. Parents need to be more involved in the lives of their children. On the flip side though, students may display good behaviour in front of their parents and when they are at school it is a different situation. Also, it has been happening a lot where teachers neglect students displaying bad behaviour in school because they think it is a waste of time to try anything to curb them. If efforts are futile, informing the child’s parent of their behaviour can possibly result in a change in the child’s behaviour when the parent takes action. So both parents and teachers are responsible.

— Jermaine Patterson

I wouldn’t place the blame on neither, as what takes place outside the presence of guardians are not necessarily their fault as the child may display a certain behavior at home and another at school while another with peers. Therefore, the child is to be blamed of whatever he/she does as after a certain age all children know the consequences of their actions.

— Jason Johnson

It is not the schools’ fault. I think the students should be blamed, they have a brain and they know what they’re doing. The parents should be blamed also because they should play their part too. They should try to curve the negative behaviour of their child once an issue has been raised about them. If this is done then a lot of social problems can be mitigated quite possibly these same delinquents in school are the ones who turn out to be the most dangerous criminals in the country.

— Akeem Hibbert

It is tempting to place the majority of the blame on the parents of these children for their actions. However, I sincerely believe that the influence of their peers and the violence portrayed by the wider society has the greatest impact.

— Alex-Marcel Gayle