ADDRESSING the prevalence of weapons being confiscated from schoolchildren and the general indiscipline among them, president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) Mark Malabver has accused the Government of undermining discipline in schools and not affording administrators the luxury of taking proper action against breaches in many cases.

In an interview with the Jamaica Observer on Sunday, Malabver shared that there are some schools that even struggle to deal with gang-related activities involving students.

“The data speaks for itself. The education ministry collects the data on the various infractions in our schools. They know the types of weapons that have been seized in our schools. The students do carry a wide array of weapons. What are we doing with the data, I don’t know, but clearly we need to do something,” Malabver said.

“The numbers are significant. There are schools where gangs are present and administrators, boards, and the ministry need to find a way of rooting out these gangs out of schools. Schools must be a hostile environment for gangs,” he added.

He said it was widely known that students have, on many occasions, been taking weapons to school, including knives, ice picks, and scissors. While it is not an everyday and regular occurrence for guns to be confiscated from students, Malabver pointed out that it has happened before.

“We have seen even where students have been apprehended because they may have a firearm in their possession. That is not new. It does speak to a wider issue of student indiscipline in our schools. That has manifested in many ways, so to speak. There have been multiple cases of stabbing,” he said, while pointing to a recent incident in which 13-year-old Kland Doyle, a student of Seaforth High School in St Thomas, was stabbed to death by another student on April 20. Doyle was killed following a dispute with other students that reportedly started on school grounds but spilled over into the town centre.

Commanding officer for the St Thomas Police Division Rohan Ritchie confirmed that the incident unfolded between 2:30 pm and 3:00 pm near the Morant Bay Transport Centre, in the vicinity of Teen Hub, near an Internet café and research facility frequently used by students. Three students were taken into custody in relation to the incident.

Just last week, the police arrested four schoolboys in Gordon Town, St Andrew, who were allegedly found to be in possession of weapons. The Observer understands that four students of Papine High School were arrested and charged for possession of offensive weapons, including knives, ice picks, and machetes. Cops had to intervene quickly to break up the brawl; however, at the end of it all, no charges were laid for assault because there were no reports made. However, the boys were charged with possession of the weapons.

The Observer has sought, since last week, to get statistics from the police on the number of weapons and the types of weapons seized from students; however, the information was promised for this week. But up to recently the police had been sharing images on social media of weapons seized from students.

The JTA president also, alarmingly, shared that there appears to be an increase in unprovoked attacks on educators, based on reports he has received.

“Of course, you know there are instances of bullying and what I would say is that there seems to be a significant increase in unprovoked attacks on teachers by students. In one particular case in St Catherine, a teacher was attacked from behind by a student, causing significant injury to the teacher, and the teacher had to be out of school for a protracted period of time to recuperate from the injury.

“We know of those instances, and the teachers have to pay out of pocket in many of these instances. The reality is that there has been a significant increase in student indiscipline, and there are several reasons for it. Certainly, one of the things has to do with parenting and the type of parenting, and the Government continues to keep treating with the symptoms of indiscipline rather than getting to the root. The root, for me, is poor parenting,” the JTA president expressed.

Malabver contended that there is no legislation in place to hold parents accountable for the level of indiscipline their children display in schools. He said that from a legislative standpoint, lawmakers need to be looking at this in a serious way to make a change.

“There are issues with governance in our schools, and in many instances, based on how the code is set up, students are sometimes let off the hook because a school board failed to act in a timely manner, and that speaks to an issue with governance in our schools. What I will say as well is that I believe that the Ministry of Education has been inadvertently complicit in helping to undermine discipline in schools.

“Whenever there is a dress code on grooming, many ministry officials, and sometimes even our politicians, come out in support of certain students when teachers and principals seek to take action. All of a sudden you will hear about a policy being developed and is in this phase or that phase, but where is the policy on indiscipline in our schools?

“We need to take a hard-nosed approach when it comes on to discipline. The Ministry of Education has been inadvertently complicit in undermining discipline in our schools. I know that if you interview them, they will say that it is not true, but the facts speak for themselves,” the JTA president told the Observer.

Mark Malabver, president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association Joseph Wellington

A Jamaica Constabulary Force social media post a few years ago, shows weapons and other items confiscated from students, when The St Catherine North Police, supported by members of the Jamaica Defence Force, carried out a search of a high school.