KINGSTON, Jamaica — The People’s National Party’s (PNP) Damion Crawford is calling on the government to implement new initiatives to protect children from abuse.

Crawford, in a statement today, made note of a newspaper article which highlighted statistics revealing that approximately 15,000 cases of abuse against children was reported in 2018.

 “Noting the data available in the report, I would like to renew my call for the government to intervene immediately with policies that can reverse this unfortunate trend which confirms an assault on our nation’s children,” he said.

These are some of the suggestions which the Government may consider in dealing with the present situation, Crawford said in his statement.

1)    Encourage greater collaboration between the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information on a programme of deployment of both ministries’ human resources and budget to establish a central registry of abuse cases being reported across the island.

This will be better facilitated by appointing immediately a Minister with direct responsibility for the Ministry of Youth.

2)    Establish a public sexual offender’s registry. While the research is not in agreement on whether such a registry reduces the likelihood of reoffending, the literature is clear that information to communities have helped to prevent offenses by preparing communities with the relevant information.

3)    Remove the shift system. The shift system at both the primary and secondary levels ought to be removed. The reality of the shift system has left our children exposed to being alone frequently for extended periods of time.In the case of the morning shift, the child is left with no adult supervision or protection from 12 noon until parent arrives; and in the case of the evening shift, the child is left without supervision and/or adult protection from 7:00 am to 12 noon.

The latter was evident yesterday (June 20) in Portland, where a 15-year-old student getting ready for school on the evening shift, was accosted at home and raped in her bathroom.

4)    Increase the number of guidance counsellors in our schools. The recommended ratio is 1 to 250, while in Jamaica the ratio presently stands at 1 to 1000 students in the secondary system. What is worse, in the main, primary schools are not provided with a guidance counsellor in their staff complement.