TROUBLED by an increase in physical clashes especially among boys, the staff at the St Thomas Hill View Kinder Prep marched through Morant Bay on Tuesday with approximately 300 students chanting for peace.

Bearing placards and waving blue flags, the children marked Peace Day 2023 as they enthusiastically pleaded for peace on the streets.

Principal of the institution, Kennesia Mclean, told the Jamaica Observer that the school wanted to embody this year’s slogan for Peace Day, which was “Be the Peace”, and to promote its motto, which is “Building assiduously for the future”.

“We try to groom the children in the best way possible. We believe in morals and values so we try to instil same. What is happening is impacting the children in a negative light and as such, we want to endorse the slogan, ‘Be the Peace’. We are trying to instil peace starting in the school environment because the children come from different backgrounds and some of them will come with negative behaviours that are displayed out there in the society.

“Our aim and goal is for them to detour from that type of behaviour. We are trying to make a change. Let’s hope and pray that we will make a difference, even in one person’s life,” said Mclean.

She pointed out that some of her students come from communities which are plagued by crime and violence which sometimes lead to them displaying negative behaviour.

“Sometimes you would see children acting a certain way and people will brand them as being rude. They don’t know how to express themselves and as such, it will come out in their behaviour. We have children who act up from time to time but we try to put in intervention programmes. From the onset, we try to find out from their parents what the matter is.

“When I speak to my colleagues at other schools they will tell me that sometimes the students come to school with knives and so on and they do not know how to solve conflicts. Let’s say, for example, someone brushes against them, all they want to do is fight. At the end of our march we would hope that people will be touched enough to try and be the peace,” added sMclean.

She told the Observer that because some of the children are so exposed to violence they are traumatised at times.

“At the end of our march we are hoping that the culprits or the persons who are really creating the violence will be touched enough that they will try and be the peace,” said Mclean.

In the meantime Lasheema Young, vice-principal with responsibility for the upper school, shared with the Observer that the boys have become more violent and the march was really an activity to open the eyes of St Thomas residents.

“We are concerned about the overall crime and violence. We are a prep school and we are now experiencing more fights at school so we want to open the eyes of the communities to the fact that there are things we can do to stop this. Maybe people will listen to the cry of the children,”said Young.