DIRECTOR of safety and security at the Ministry of Education and Youth Richard Troupe says given the impact of conflicts within families and communities on students – some of whom have taken to arming themselves – Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) must be “repositioned” as part of the solution.

“Families without strong value systems are not doing justice to our nation’s children and to the schools. You might feel you are doing all you can but your child is interfacing with other children and so it is a recognition that as a school community we have to reposition PTAs,” Troupe told the Jamaica Observer following Tuesday’s launch of the $2.9-billion UK/Jamaica Violence Prevention Partnership Programme.

The director of safety and security was speaking against the background of recent episodes of violence on school grounds and gun finds.

In the latest report, a Grade 11 schoolboy was hospitalised after he was stabbed by his schoolmate in a twist of events at Knox College in Spalding on Monday. Preliminary reports from the police and reliable sources were that sometime before 2:00 pm the schoolboy, who was reportedly armed with a knife, got into a confrontation with a Grade 10 student. It is reported that during the confrontation, the Grade 10 student used the weapon to inflict wounds to the face of the Grade 11 student.

“The recent stabbing incident [was] very unfortunate. We suggest to our school leaders that suspensions and expulsions by themselves cannot be the tool… so many of our nation’s children are hurting because of what happens at homes and community. We have families that are going through significant trauma, multiple deaths; they are grieving, and hurting children will hurt others. We have to be deliberate,” Troupe said.

“So we say again to school leaders, we are tracking the infractions but also let’s hold the system accountable for the support given to the child and his or her family or caregiver because that for us is going to make a difference,” Troupe said while insisting that the real triggers behind student behaviours must be interrogated so the appropriate interventions can be made.

He, however, made it clear that parents were not being relieved of their responsibilities.

“There is a role for parents, we are saying it’s not to police your child but have a conversation with your child, don’t wait for school alone to do the searches, search your children’s bags,” he urged.

In the meantime, Troupe said the education ministry is doing extensive work to finalise its Safe Schools Policy.

“That is really going to take a pro-social approach to treating with student discipline. The punitive thing will not work. We are working with a UN agency, UNLIREC, to develop a policy to treat with the presence and use of firearms in schools,” he told the
Observer.

“We understand the vulnerability; the proliferation of small arms in this country makes the education system and our schools extremely vulnerable to the presence and use and not just illegal [weapons] because there is also a proliferation of legal firearms,” Troupe noted.

“If children have access to legal or illegal weapons, there is a possibility they could take them [to school]. How do we respond as a school community? We are seeing our neighbours to the north; we can’t have lockdowns at our schools, God forbid because we don’t have the infrastructure for that kind of response. So our focus has to be prevention,” the director of safety and security pointed out.

In September this year, the St Elizabeth police reported that a sub-machine gun was seized at a school in the parish. The authorities said that the gun was in the possession of a seven-year-old student. In June this year, a 12-year-old female student of Ocho Rios High in St Ann was shot in the thigh, accidentally, while a 14-year-old male student who took a pistol to school was displaying it to his classmates. It is reported that several students were in the social studies lab handling the gun when one of them is said to have pulled the trigger, releasing a bullet that hit the female student.

According to the police, more than 500 children have been arrested for major crimes since 2018. According to the constabulary, between 2019 and 2022, 256 children were arrested for breaches of the Firearms Act. Between 2018 and 2020 a total 136 children aged 12 to 18 were arrested for gun-related crimes of which 52 were for murder and 82 for shooting.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Fayval Williams in May this year disclosed that for the period January 2022 to January 2023, a total of 55 critical-incident reports regarding violence in schools were submitted to the ministry. The 55 critical incidents occurred at 50 different schools – 15 primary and 35 high schools – while five of the schools had two critical incidents each.