KINGSTON, Jamaica — Senior Parish Judge Sanchia Burrell is calling for more to be done to cut down truancy among Jamaican students, which she described as a contributor to crime.

“Something has to be done when these youngsters drop out of high school,” Burrell said highlighting the correlation between an unfinished education and a life of crime during a sitting of the Kingston and St Andrew Parish court on Tuesday.

Burrell was in the middle of sentencing a young man who had stopped attending school in 10th grade, something the judge says she has to do far too often.

The judge further encouraged attorneys in the room to advocate for intervention to protect young men as she said they are particularly vulnerable, evidenced by the young man in the court dock.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, listening in to the appeal were sixth-form students from Wolmer’s Girls School, attending court as part of their sociology classes.

“We studied crime and deviance so we are here to see how that applies in real life, we have to understand why people turn to crime,” Deputy Head Girl, Angelique Groves said, adding “You see how theories play out. The judge made a correlation between dropping out of school and people turning to crime as a result, that’s something that we have studied.”

In assessing the work done to help students her age who may end up in these positions, Groves said.

“From observation I see where different policies have been put in place to assist, for instance, if you don’t complete the traditional high school course, you do have technical programmes where you can learn a skill and jobs that don’t require as high a qualification. I think the means [are there] it’s more about making it publicly known. If it is more out there, persons might say ‘okay I don’t have to turn to crime.”

Fellow student Brianna Ingram, who is interested in pursuing law, chimed in with concerns about mental health.

“For us, I feel like young people could be more educated about mental health,” she said, pointing to several cases involving the mentally ill that had come up during their visit to court.

“We could be more educated so we can advocate for them. We are the younger generation, we’re going to grow up and become the future, if we are educated from now we will be better able to tackle these issues.”

The young women were led by Law and Sociology Teacher Julia Thompson who conceptualised the trip.

“In class, we look at how institutions in our community deal with these situations that come up. The court is one of those institutions, this is the first time being in a courthouse for most… today [Tuesday] is a day of [being open-minded] for them,” Thompson said.

Her student, Shanese Saunderson, who is aiming to become a policy analyst, said being in the court system and seeing the result of various societal triggers was an invaluable experience.

“I think mental health policies are necessary, we need to invest in trained professionals to identify those problems and make sure they are diagnosed properly,” she said.

The judge too noted that early and targeted intervention for at-risk youth is key in combatting crime and violence locally.

“Some schools pop up more often than others. There has to be social work intervention [in them] from first form,” she stressed.

At least one lawyer in the room shared concerns that she had had clients who dropped out of school and were thrust into limbo because of their age.

In response, Burrell presented the possibility of an intermediary school to take on young people who are out of the formal education system but too young for the Human Employment and Resource Training Trust/National Service Training Agency (HEART/NSTA) programme.

— Dana Malcolm