Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
ULTRA VIOLENT and ubiquitous school gangs are the ugly underbelly of the public education system. Investigations by The Sunday Gleaner have revealed that gun-toting, knife-wielding and ganja-smoking teens are running well-organised crime units in several secondary schools across the gamut of the Kingston Metropolitan Region (KMR), which includes Kingston, St. Andrew and St. Catherine.
The gangs or 'cliques' are heavily involved in extortion and other criminal activities. 'Death before dishonour', is their watchword and song. They will not 'rat' on another member of their posse if caught in wrongdoing, as they are guided by a code of silence found only in the Mafia.
So rooted are these gangs, that some students think that schools can never be cured of the plague. "This has been going on forever, and you know how many people try to stop it in a million ways, but I think it is not going to end," said a disheartenedRyan Riley, a past student of one of the schools.
He added: "You can try, and I wish you all the best, but I guarantee, you are not the first ones."
The far-reaching tentacles of gangs in our nation's schools have touched young Riley's life. His mother removed him from one of Kingston's most prominent all-boys' high school after less than two years. The rugged nature of the school community changed his demeanour. The tough atmosphere forced him to start acting like a thug as a defence mechanism.
VICTIMS OF EXTORTION
The situation is severe, saidMarilyn Nugent, mother of Ryan Riley. "It is extremely bad. A lot of students don't want to go to school and they are functioning well in that environment. I am so sorry for them," she said.
Ryan said he was just one of the many victims of extortion or 'taxing', as it is referred to in their hip sphere. His mother said that he had to develop new and ingenious ways to avoid being 'taxed'. Creating secret compartments in his bag by slashing it was one of the ways he got to keep his lunch money and other valuables away from the student extortionists.
Tyra Blanks, a fifth former who attends one of St. Andrew's most prominent all-girls' school, told The Sunday Gleaner that her peers do not get caught because they are operating under the radar of the school administration and the police. "They don't get caught as easy because they are skilled. They hide it (marijuana) in the cuff of their pants and in their hair," she said with an air of awe.
The well-spoken young lady also divulged that fisticuffs are archaic. These days it is about who is 'packing', and we don't mean books. "Fist fights are things of the '80s and early '90s. These guys are walking with their guns. It is about who have bigger guns," she stressed. Ms. Blanks made it perfectly clear that disrespecting any member of a notorious school clique guarantees a beat down. The fast-talking teen revealed that half the clashes that take place between gangs are not reported in the news. Even deaths go by without a word or line, she said. A lot of the altercations take place at parties when rival gangs cross paths, she revealed.
GANG-RIDDLED SCHOOLS
Tanya Miller, a former teacher at one of St. Catherine's most volatile and gang-riddled schools, confirmed that gangs and guns are invading some high schools. The violence associated with the gangs was half of the reason why Mrs. Miller left the school and is working now in the Corporate Area. Mrs. Miller said that the boys in the gangs have a specific look and mode of dress. She said the boys would adjust their pants to make it tighter and the crotch baggier. She said it was widely rumoured that the baggy crotch was a means of
discarding their guns.
"The bleach-out face, black shoe polish to dye the hair, kerchief around the neck, shoes ever clean you know the slick, bad-man look," she said.
Mrs. Miller said that there is a sense of hopelessness among the students involved in these gang activities. This, she said is exacerbated by the condescending treatment meted out to them by many teachers. Mrs. Miller said the cellphones are also a major cause for concern, as they are used by the gang members to call for back-up. "They have
outside links and if they can't manage, they call somebody who would come on campus with a knife or a gun," she said.
Names changed on request.
