That is the sentiment of Director of Education Clare Browne, in response to the
latest fighting incident among students at one of the country’s secondary schools.
Browne said he was shocked and appalled when he saw the video recording of the
fight amongst students at the Clare Hall Secondary School, especially after the
amount of time and resources that have been put into efforts by the Ministry of
Education to bring an end to violence in the nation’s schools.
“It is really disheartening that the ministry has spent a lot of money and deployed
much resources to teach our young people a better way; that they have a choice to
choose a better path in dealing with conflict resolution. Yet, every other week we
see examples of our young people engaged in violent behavior. These are our own
children, yet this behavior is mind-boggling,” he remarked.
The education director said parents must shoulder some of the blame for what is
happening among the nation’s youth. “We have to look at ourselves and what
many of us are doing on social media, where we are threatening people for various
reasons. Our children are watching and they are acting out what we say on our
social media posts,” he opined.
The senior education official also wants to see changes to the Child Protection Act,
these changes will give the police more scope to act when young people break the
law and engage in violent and or anti-social behavior.
“I am not about ‘lock-up’, but young people must know that we as a society will
not put up with this type of behavior,” he declared.
Browne said generally the future of the country looks bright, with the vast majority
of young people pursuing positive activities, and taking advantage of the
opportunities that are available, such as higher education, technology, and sports,
but with a few ‘bad elements’ wanting to derail these positives with their anti-
social behavior.
“This problem of violence amongst our youth is a societal issue and one which has
to be solved by the entire society. It is not enough to say young people are a
problem; the society must come together and work out solutions,” he emphasized.
The director indicated that an investigation will take place in the latest incident and
those involved will be dealt with accordingly. “I have never been to a war zone,
however, what I saw on this latest video tells me what a war zone is; our schools
are not war zones and must not be treated as such,” he stated emphatically.
