Last week, a video surfaced of six young schoolboys and one schoolgirl in her uniform in a bedroom. Some of the boys were in their khaki uniforms. From the video clips I watched, two boys were unabashedly filming the scenes. One of the boys was on top of the girl as he looked into the camera. She was lying on the bed on her back in her uniform, halfway up her thigh. The girl was trying to hide her face at this point.

At this moment, you heard one of the boys say to the boy on top of her:

“Yuh get already man, yuh no tyaad… Dun dun …”

Another boy says: “Gwaan man u tek piece already!”

While another asks the other boys: “You get already?”

“Yeh yeh”

“Sweet deh dawg u get already! Yuh get?”

(Laughter)

Girl shouts: “Stop nuh!”

The boys mock and tease her.

She begins to fight the boy on top of her.

He slaps her across her face.

One of the boys exclaims: “[Name] a war di gyal fi har owna p…”

The other boys laugh

As [Name] to punch and fight her, another boy shouts: “No, [Name], no…”

When I looked at the boys’ faces, they all looked like little boys — skinny, mechanical, and transactional, as if they were all there for sport.

The little girl, we are told, is 13 years old.

Since then, and following the circulation of the video, the police have arrested the schoolboys charging them with several offences, including rape, forcible abduction, knowing and producing child pornography, and distributing child pornography.

According to investigations, the group of male students allegedly lured the 13-year-old schoolgirl to a house where they sexually assaulted her and video-recorded the acts.

In a statement, the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) said that it is was providing psychological intervention for the 13-year-old victim, and that they “strongly condemn this despicable act that was meted out to this girl. The levels of violence we continue to see being displayed by our children are of grave concern. Sadly, this also seems to be a reflection of the violence and disrespect towards women and girls that permeate our society. We need to do more now to protect our children and future. These kinds of maladaptive behaviours in our schools and communities must not be condoned and we must teach our boys that masculinity is not synonymous with abuse.”

Good statement, but now what?

I have been writing about these incidents for some time now. ‘Jamaican schoolgirl and the online porn industry’, ‘Freakoffs: The Jamaican reality of sexual aggression, power, and control’, ‘More than ‘birds and bees’ talk’, and ‘A long skirt won’t deter child molesters’, just to cite a few.

Yet, as a nation, we express alarm at the continued hypersexual behaviour of some of our children, which is contrary to self-proclaimed moral discipline for their age and stage.

‘Revenge porn’ is a trend being practised among high-school Jamaican teens. That is, a boy and girl in a relationship have no problems filming themselves in a sexual act. However, if the relationship ends badly, one releases the video digitally to embarrass the other party.

Are these behaviours only happening in one sector of our society or in certain schools among our children?

It’s more widespread than many believe and occurs at all income levels and addresses.

Also, in the statement by CPFSA it said it is providing psychological intervention for the 13-year-old victim who was observed on video being physically abused while being sexually assaulted by a group of male teens. Plus, the agency will conduct further medical assessments on her and support her family.

This support now is critical.

However, nowhere in the statement from the CPFSA did I read anything about psychological intervention for the boys or their families, or whether or not that would be provided, unless I missed it or it’s being done and it wasn’t said.

The boys have been charged, which is the end of the story. This is how we have been proceeding with these incidents for some time now.

When was the last time the CPFSA conducted a comprehensive parenting workshop to impart parenting skills and other coping mechanisms for children? The last time I recall it being done was a decade ago when I was minister of youth and culture with responsibility for Child Development Agency (CDA).

But what happens when behaviours are promoted to our young people who don’t have positive interrupters to tell them that it is not normal and could very well land them in jail?

“Gyal cock up mek mi f… yuh dehso

Anuh nutt’n if yuh snap a video

See di miggle mek yuh whine di muckle

Yaah roll wid eh gang den yuh nah get nutt’n

Gyal cock up mek mi f… yuh dehso…

“Mi n’even feel nuh way dawg

A next catty deh a wait inna di yaad

And if she f… around a same thing dawg

A Fada Bad Gang, a me di gyal want

And a never my fault…”

The popular song Likkle Miss by Skeng suggests that it’s okay for a woman to be filmed while someone is having sex with her. And if she has a problem, then he can find several other women who would be willing to oblige. Moreover, the woman prepared to give in to the request will get whatever she wants and be rated highly by the ‘gang’.

Both genders are at work here, male and female. Therefore, as a nation, we have to address the reality of what is taking place and how it affects the psycho-social behaviour of boys and girls differently.

At this point, we should have psychologists meet with the boys to understand what led to them doing this and whether they understood the consequences of their behaviour. Then, we can begin to learn how to change the behaviours so that more of them don’t end up in jail.

We also need to speak with the boys’ mothers and fathers to understand what has been happening in their home environments.

What I saw on that video were some children playing some kind of “video sexual game” that was clearly wrong, and the repercussions of which they will suffer devastating consequences as teenagers.

But who is to take responsibility? The parents, the school system, the community, the television, our music, the church?

When I met with them as minister of youth, there was one spoken policy I would say to all the CDA staff: “We must see every child as our own.” Even though I am no longer the minister, I still live by this policy: As parents living in Jamaica, we must see every child as our own and want the best for them.

We mustn’t wait until it reaches our homes to tackle it; furthermore, seemingly, it’s already on its way. It is time we, as adults, hold ourselves accountable for these behaviours being exhibited by our kids, rather than avoid them, hoping they will go away.

Lisa Hanna is Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern, People’s National Party spokesperson on foreign affairs and foreign trade, and a former Cabinet member.

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