Dear Editor,

The age of attainment of majority in Jamaica is 18 years and came into effect from April 30, 1979 when the Law Reform (Age of Majority) Act came into effect.

This therefore makes it clear that children in Jamaica enrolled in the early childhood to secondary education system up to age 18 are considered minors and remain under the jurisdiction, guidance, and care of parents or guardians. Whenever these children are in attendance at school, principals and teachers have a duty of care to protect and secure the safety of these minors while they are on campus.

Children are in school to be taught concepts and develop their critical thinking skills.

The business of socialisation is a function of the home, and while schools rightly establish standards of conduct, which define their character and how all their stakeholders must acquit themselves, there are inalienable rights and conventions which are sacrosanct. As a result, principals and teachers cannot remove students from school campuses during the designated hours of contact learning without the knowledge and involvement of parents.

On the occasions when minors exhibit antisocial behaviour, their parents ought to be summoned to the institutions for engagement.

Under no circumstance, however, is a child to be locked out of a school campus.

If he or she presents a physical danger to other stakeholders on the campus, the principal ought to take control, keep the minor in his or her presence, engage law enforcement, and involve the parents immediately. You cannot deny children the safety and structure of the campus once their parents have handed them over to the duly constituted authority of the Government. And further, this matter of breaching the privacy of children by having their images in the media is incorrect.

Principals and other school administrators guilty of locking children out of school after their parents have delivered them to the campus must be arrested and placed before the courts.

It is time we reshape our society by treating with respect the weakest and most vulnerable. Let us not transfer the responsibility for the moral decadence in our society to our children, they are living what they have learnt over decades of disregard for order.

That said, the bruhaha about hairstyles in school has its antecedents in Jamaica’s bigoted, plantation reality. Little boys and girls of dominant European and Asian influences in our society are not being subjected to the same discriminatory actions on the rare occasion that they are enrolled in our public education system.

Mark A Hylton

Montego Bay

markahylton@hotmail.com