Several hundred school children in Anguilla, joined by teachers, representatives of various community groups and churches, staged a protest street march from outside the National Trust Building around the Caribbean Commercial Bank and Mahogany Tree Road area and back, on Tuesday afternoon, against recent acts of violence on the island.

The march got underway following opening prayers by Pastor Cecil Richardson of the Central Baptist Church who is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Comprehensive School.

The first section of the march

“Say No to Violence and Yes to Education,” the large throng of placard-bearing marchers shouted as they made their way along the road to the drumming of the Pathfinders and Boys Brigade Band. They braved the hot afternoon sun to get their message across, finding much relief from bottles of water supplied by Scotiabank (Anguilla) Limited as its contribution to the cause of the march.

Scenes from the march

“There are so many banners and placards, everyone emphasing that violence is not good and we must now take charge of the situation,” said Clinical Psychologist and Managing Director of the Teacher Gloria Omolulu Institute, Dr. O. M. Linda Banks, who chaired the proceedings. The proceedings involved a series of speeches at the end of the march. Dr. Banks did a good job in rallying the protesters as she condemned the violent acts and called on the marchers to denounce the wanton behaviour.

The protest march followed a series of violent incidents among students at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School and the recent killing of a school girl in a separate incident not connected to the school.

Mr. George Kentish

One of the speakers, George Kentish, Chairman of the school’s Board of Governors and President of the Parent/Teachers Association, outlined many of the challenges which teachers have been dealing with for some time. These included verbal threats to kill students and teachers; love-making incidents; the prolific use of indecent language; gossip, truancy, leaving the school’s compound without approval; other disciplinary problems; fighting, use of drugs and gang fights. He stressed the need for these undesirable influences to be removed from the school environment.
“During discussion with parents and some children exhibiting disruptive behaviour – especially among boys – it was discovered that the problems were directly linked to the home environment,” Mr. Kentish noted. “Parents are shouting at children using indecent language and they similarly responding; and boys observing their sisters being sexually molested by their mother’s boyfriend and no action being taken to stop it. Consequently, depending on the situation when they leave home, they arrive at school with much pent up anger. The least anyone says to them usually results in an aggressive response.”

Mr. Kentish referred to other forms of deviant behaviour at the school and offered a number of suggestions to parents. He advised them to look for opportunities to teach their children responsible behaviour through everyday situations; to share their moral and religious values with them; to discuss complicated decisions to help them understand how the choices they make will affect them and others; visit their children’s classroom regularly; make time to become involved in the children’s school activities; check their school reports; ensure that they complete their home work assignments; monitor their television viewing; return to teaching children survival skills, backyard gardening and animal husbandry; praise and encourage children; obtain a copy of the school rules and discuss them with the children.

Mr. Kentish continued: “These are but a few suggestions. Get together with your neighbours, relatives, teachers and ministers of religion and discuss how as parents you can make a sustained contribution to training, supervision and the education of your children.

“There is a saying ‘Example is better than precept.’ We have elected our representatives and expect that as leaders their general decorum will be such that there will be confidence and national pride in the people. Instead, we see and hear the lawlessness and inappropriate behaviour in the House of Assembly when conducting the affairs of the country. Such behaviour can be interpreted as being the norm and influence the way we interact with one another. This behaviour is unacceptable from persons in such leadership roles and as a community we must say to them enough is enough.

Let us with one accord shout ‘We are a community against violence.’

Student Kimberly Rogers

Sixth Form student Kimberly Rogers said the island’s schools and communities were in trouble. “Violence has escalated to the point where there is a serious and immediate need for action by all members of the community and we as young people have a crucial if not the most crucial part to play. It is up to us to break this vicious and escalating cycle that is gradually pervading our small island,” she said. “The future of Anguilla is in our hands and we must see the dire necessity of ending this cycle now. We must all understand that violence has negative repercussions that may affect us not only now but in years to come.”

The brilliant-speaking student continued: “Some may claim that we are becoming paranoid and that recent acts of violence are the exception to the rule. They may not even see the necessity of this rally, but I beg to differ. It is times like these that we need to take proactive measures against further incidents. As youths, there are many things that we can do to ensure that the spread of violence is curbed and stopped. It has been observed that the vast majority of violent incidents have occurred among us as youths; and in many cases violent trends have begun from the time these children were in the primary school. These are all children that we know; but why is it that these children have so much anger in them, fight their peers and bring knives and guns to school?

“It is the general consensus that we are being negatively influenced by the media. We view so many violent acts on television and listen to so many songs… that we are becoming desensitised to violence…” She called on young people not to idolise those persons who make their living by hustling and killing and added: “Let us listen to positive music and even though this may sound corny, let us pick up a book and read. It is our duty to ourselves and our community that we become decent and productive citizens…”
Education Board member, Calvert Carty spoke about the impact of violence on the economy. “If you feel that education is expensive, try ignorance,” he declared. “Education is the greatest restraint to violence because as you go through the different stages of education you are taught to think. If we look around at the people who are involved in violence, they are the ones who have not been taught to think and do not want to think. People who are educated walk away from physical fight. They fight with words and the results of violence are very devastating to our economy because it is extremely expensive.”

Mr. Carty noted that the situation had its beginnings in the home where many parents were only concerned with providing children with name-brand clothing and other material things and not concerned about disciplinary matters. He charged that children were being allowed to look at pornography on the television and internet resulting in a waste of electricity and money thus affecting the economic wellbeing of their parents.

He continued: “In the schools, the Government pays the teachers highly and these teachers have a wealth of knowledge to impart to little minds that come before them and they want to do well to help bring up the children in the way that they should go. If the monies the Government paid to the teachers are wasted because children do not want to listen, it impacts upon the society. Funds allocated to the education of the children may then have to be re-allocated to the Welfare Department to pay a plane to take them to Barbados for some expensive operation as a result of violence.”

Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School students on protest march

He called on parents, teachers and students to do their part to promote good behaviour on the island, thus helping to protect economic growth and wellbeing.

Teacher Joyce Richardson

Joyce Richardson, a teacher at the Comprehensive School spoke about the violence there over the years. She said many of the solutions were to be found outside the management team of the school. “We are aware of the powerful influence of our society on our homes, families, the company that we keep and on the lives of our youth,” she stated. “Today in the name of love we allow our children to be the decision makers. They demand what they want and we give it to them at their request. Hence this same mentality or irrational reasoning is brought into the school. Physical force, bullying and disturbing threats are meted out to your innocent children and teachers alike who do not surrender to their wishes.”

Mrs. Richardson went on: “Many of these criminals, sad to say, refuse to take directives from anyone. Self-respect and respect for those in authority is a value of the past. When a parent could come to the school with a vicious attack of bad words and make derogative statements in the face of a Deputy Principal and the student body… including the child that the parent came to represent, how can we expect any level of tolerance or respect from their children? How many parents search their bags occasionally? Many times not even one book is present but the chances of finding a weapon and other dangerous objects and drugs concealed in radios, walkmans and their pockets are real if you do a random search.”

She stated that if things continued as they were some one would be killed at the school and that there had been many close attempts. “We were trained to teach. I never fought in my life and therefore I cannot struggle with these hardcore children. It is unfair to think that we teachers can handle those kinds of problems on a day to day basis,” Mrs. Richardson complained, noting that many complaints had been made about the situation but without avail.

She was pleased to report however that ninety percent of the school children were of good behaviour and that the teachers were proud of them.

Rev. Lindsay Richardson

Methodist Superintendent Minister Lindsay Richardson said: “I continue to challenge the students who attend the churches where I pastor to recognise that they have a tremendous responsibility in curbing the violence in our society and schools. I want to encourage all our pastors to continue to keep this item on their agenda… We cannot allow this issue to just pass over like so many others.”

He referred to the tragic death of Jamida Webster (the school girl who was killed two weeks ago by someone unknown in the eastern end of the island). “Jamida’s death cannot be in vain. The injuries suffered by our children cannot be in vain; and if we are going to say that these incidents cannot go in vain, it means we have to stand up and continue to bring pressure to bear up all aspects of our society, children and youth,” he said.

Reverend Richardson continued: “I want to share a few thoughts about fear because I believe this is one of the main reasons why violence thrives in any society when people are afraid. Those who are responsible for violent acts know that they cannot be violent towards you unless you are afraid of them. So their main job is to make you afraid of them and that’s why they use the weapons to intimidate you and once we are afraid we become paralysed and can do nothing… Whenever there is fear in any aspect of our lives, it is going to paralyse us into inaction and when we fail to act we give more power and strength to those who want to do harm to us and to our society.
“When we as students, teachers, parents and community people are afraid, we are showing that we have no faith in God, in ourselves and in each other. The only way we are going to stamp out this problem of violence in our society is to overcome fear and to hold on to our faith in God, ourselves and each other… It is just a few in a gang but their power comes from intimidation. There are more of us than them and we need to recognise that out of the hundreds of students in that school, the gang cannot be more that 10, 15 or 20 and we allow them to rule our school because we are afraid.”

Scenes from the march

He called on all concerned to take a stand against violence; and warned young people about the dangers of gang violence as well as drug addiction and to stay far from such vices.
The Vote of Thanks was delivered by Mirabelle West, a previous student at the Comprehensive School who played a leading role in the protest march.

Scenes from the march

Dr. O. M. Linda Banks

| Printer-friendly page | Send this article to a friend |

World News