Beverley Anderson-Manley

The incidents of violence in our schools are frightening and totally unacceptable. We should pause and ponder on the lives of our adolescents as they make their way through this troubled world. The fact that violence in schools is a worldwide phenomenon is not comforting. Adults, including teachers are having great difficulty in communicating with students. Surveys reveal that the most persistent problems teenagers have with adults is that they do not listen and, therefore, do not understand.

It is ironic that given the increase in incidents of school violence, students are safer in school than elsewhere. The school like anywhere else is a system and a system functions best when the relationships in that system are effective. Communication is the foundation for successful relationships. There are two sides to communication, the ability to listen and the ability to articulate. The time has come for schools to create the type of learning environment within which a creative space is provided for both articulation and listening. Therefore, communication must be part of the curriculum. This necessarily demands participation on the part of the students who must take responsibility for the school being a safe haven. Students would, therefore, be accountable when things go wrong and sanctions must be swift.

Successful Planning

As with anything else, the first requirement of any successful school safety programme is careful planning. This fundamental part of the process should not be carried out in a hurry. It is during the planning stage, for example, that all the stakeholders get to know each other and establish clear boundaries and feedback mechanisms. Students need guidelines along with clear and unequivocal rules and regulations. Trust and respect result from this dialogue as participants learn to listen to each other and solve problems as a group. Nothing less than an integrative and comprehensive approach is required. An instrument that could come out of this planning stage is some type of 'contract' that is signed by the stakeholders that commit them to safety in the school. Hence, the orientation period becomes critical and sanctions are obvious and immediate.

Then there is the community within which the school is situated. Many students who live in the vicious inner city cannot leave home without a weapon of some kind. They have to get from home to school. Before they leave home, many of them have experienced more than one instance of verbal and/or physical violence. Violence is what they see modelled for them in their homes and in their communities as adults, it is difficult for us to stand in the shoes of young people, what we can do is listen without judgement and create genuine dialogue while suspending our assumptions.

A New Paradigm

The old ways of seeing the world no longer work. The Jamaican society is ambivalent about discipline. We approve of it sometimes but not all the time. Given the state of our country and the world, young people hardly think that as adults, we have anything to tell them. We should understand. We were young once in a different type of world.

In many ways, we are in transition in Jamaica as far as discipline is concerned. But discipline is discipline. As students increasingly become part of the dialogue through students' councils, it is incumbent on us as adults to make the transition from authoritarian types of leadership to leadership that facilitates participation, responsibility and accountability. By seeking negotiated solutions with each other, stakeholders within the school system are empowered to ensure that the school environment is a safe and secure place for learning.

What is happening in the schools should not surprise us. Lack of law and order in our schools is a reflection of lack of order in our society. Young people learn from the behaviour of adults. The Jamaican society is one of increasing lawlessness where few take responsibility for anything. Perhaps, as adults, it is time we assess our own behaviours and see the extent to which our young people are mirroring us. We cannot continue in this reckless way. We cannot condone lawlessness of any kind. The time to act is now.