Monday, 6th May 2013 (North Side, Anguilla)—This week, we continue the conversation about the root causes of aggressive behaviour amongst our youth. After I submitted the article Voices Speak Out About Violence for publishing in the Friday, 3rd May 2013 issue of The Anguillian, we received more information. This news gave us further details regarding the incident that happened between two 12-year old boys on Wednesday, 17th April 2013. It also gave some additional background details useful for investigating the matter further.
We seek to shed light on what actually transpired and to learn the real facts. Finding out what really happened will help us to design positive resolutions to help our youths, teachers, school administrators, parents, law enforcement officers and citizens in our community deal more effectively with the problems young people encounter at school, in the home and on the roads of our Caribbean island villages.
Intervention methods to determine root causes of violence
The Deputy Principal and Principal of the Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School scheduled a meeting between representatives of the School Board and the students involved as well as their parents/guardians. At the meeting held on Monday afternoon, 29th April 2013 in the Campus B General Office, we began to unravel more details of the story regarding what had occurred during the altercation between the boys. We also shared confidential patient information as to what had transpired with the medical treatment for the injured child.
This meeting was conducted in a peaceful manner and everyone had a turn to speak if he/she desired. The adults present spoke about their concerns regarding the seriousness of the incident. It appeared from the attitudes expressed by the parents of the boy who had been the aggressor that they may not have fully comprehended the severity of the injured child’s medical condition. Perhaps the whole matter was too overwhelming for them because it created an additional financial responsibility for the father and mother, and added to the list of concerns for their son.
In the school’s report on the child who had acted aggressively, it was revealed that he had been involved in several other incidents at school prior to the most recent occurrence in April. Thus,we recognised that there was already an established pattern of misbehaviour for this youth.
We were also informed that there had been five teachers attending a meeting in one of the classrooms upstairs who had witnessed the boy beating up the other student. Yet the educators had only shouted down to the children from upstairs rather than actually going down to the ground to break up the incident.
Consequently in light of this new information revealed, I pose a few questions that we ought toask the school officials and parents.Had there been sufficient methods of intervention taken in previous incidents to help counsel thechild whose behaviour waswayward? Does the school administration need to revise its policies regarding the way in which parents are notified when a student has had more than a few incidents on campus? Do teachers need professional training on conflict resolution and intervention methods to use during disputes between students?
Why didn’t any of the teachers go downstairs and attempt to remove the boy who was acting aggressively? We must investigate and ask all of the teachers if it was because the child was not one of their own, or whether for their own safety they feared getting physically involved. Is it perhaps because there is favouritism given to specific students andif the child is not favoured, then teachers do not intervene? Or would therehave beenother consequences faced by teachers who are not Anguillian nationals if they sought to come to the aid of a student and do what was the right thing to do?
These questions are not meant to point the finger of blame at any particular individual. But they are written to encourage us to search for the truth. May be if we obtain truthful answers to these queries, then we can help improve how we handle such situations in the future.
Determining factors for root causes of aggressive behaviour
What caused the youth (the aggressor) to react in such a violent or brutal manner?My investigative work has revealed some possible answers as to the root cause of the 12-year old boy’s aggressive behaviour. A few persons (whose names will be withheld to protect their privacy) bore witness to the results of the child having been severely lashed by his parent following the School Board meeting. This should be a clear indication that there may be other social symptoms impacting theboy’s behaviour. They could possibly be a reflection of the home environment in which he has been brought up.
Of course, a parent has the authority to chastise a child when he has done wrong. However was the kind of corporal punishment administered in this instance the appropriate action to follow? Perhaps the parent reacted out of anger or frustration in dealing with the incident the boy had caused. We should not quickly judge the adult, but must dig deeper to find the root cause of the parent’s reaction and the reason why he/sheso harshly lashed the child.
One could have perceived this lashing as an incident of child abuseand felt compelled to immediately report it to the appropriate authorities. Yet doing so may not have been in the best interests of helping both the parents and the child understand the repercussions of their actions.
Instead of hastily reporting the affair to the Police or Department of Social Welfare, we sought other avenues to investigate the matter. In that way, we were able touncover underlying issues within the family’s dynamics that may have initiated the boy’s behaviour. At the same time, wealso had to protect the well being of the child.Thus, the grandmother was called and tooktemporary custody of her grandson.
Investigating what is going on in the family’s dynamics
Further action involving the investigationof the family’s dynamics was taken by a few of the persons who were involved in attempts to satisfactorily resolve this matter.A local pastor was contacted and called upon to speak with the parents. Hespoke with the father with whom he is familiar. The pastor wastold that this type of corporal punishment was not the normal pattern exhibited by the boy’s parent. However, one of the witnesses had been informed in confidence by a teacher that students at school had spokenabout the boy being lashed prior to thisoccasion. The witness talked with the pastor and conveyed this information to him without giving names of the informants.
Recommended actions forfollow up
A recommendation was made that this matter of the parent lashing the child be investigated more in depth.It needed to be ascertained whetherthe boy was correctly reprimanded or if it was a case of child mistreatment.We did not have concrete evidence that this was an on-going pattern. Nor did we want to make any assumptions regarding what were the true facts versus fabrications of the truth.
Often, we are quick to judge a person’s behaviour without knowing the root cause of the individual’s actions. Sometimes when a father or mother lashes a child, it is because he or she is under a tremendous amount of stress to provide for the family. It could also be the adult was beaten as a child or may have received this type of abusive treatment from a relative.There are many instances when parents dispense punishment in the way that they were taught. With other adults, they refuse to repeat the methods used by their fore parents. We don’t know what is the case with this particular parent.
Whatever the case may be we have to find out what caused this particular parent to harshly lash the boy. We must also provide counselling and guidance to both the parents and child on how to effectively handle similar situations should they occur in the future. Punishment needs to be given appropriately for misbehaviour and measured according to the offence. Acting out of sheer brutality is never warranted. Our children also need to be protected from the wrath of any person’s anger, abuse or neglect even if it comes from a parent who brought this child into the world or raised him/her.
So the question to ask ourselves, as a God-fearing Christian community, is:How can we protect our children from repeating the past experiences that we ourselves (the adults or parents) went through during our childhood and teenage years? If we work on changing ourselves to be better people, then we will have a positive impact on those around us. We must also work towards creating a safe environment for youth at school.
Creating a safe environment at school
We are challenged to create safe environments in our schools in which our children will be able to learn, to be guided and to be counselled.Educational institutions ought not merely to be facilities for learning, but should also be safe havens in which theyouths come to be educated.In the opinion of many persons, schools ought to be a place where young people can feel at ease to discuss any problems they may be experiencing either in school or at home.
As adults, we all have a responsibility to help mould our children, youths and young persons. Do you remember the African saying, “It takes a village to raise a child”? So, as a small community of civic-minded citizens, we must come together to approach this issue of violence amongst the youth. Each one of us can serve as a positive role model through the words that we speak and the actions that we take.
Ultimately, we need to ask further questions regarding the safety of the youths when they are attending school.Who is responsible to ensure there is a safe environment at school in which our children are able to learn?Frequently, they face bullying and violence no matter what school they attend, either a public or private institution. Whether or not students are personally involved in such incidents, merely seeing or hearing about them has an impact on their young and impressionable minds, their mental and emotional psyches. Therefore, it would be incumbent upon all of us — the youths, parents, teachers, security guards, principals, school board, police officers and local citizens/residents — to take responsibility for ensuring that every school environment is as safe as possible for the children who are there to be educated and to learn.
How can we create safe environments in the schools?
We can accomplish this task by: (1) training our teachers to handle incidents of bullying and violence, (2) hiring properly trained security officers who conduct frequent walking patrols of the premises and physically intercede when events occur, (3) maintaining policies for immediate reporting of all incidents occurring on school property, (4) having school officials follow up with the Royal Anguilla Police Force whenever necessary and (5) scheduling regular parent, teacher, student meetings to discuss creating safe environments and other issues that may arise at school. As well, (6) we might consider organising “peace academies” to teach us how to implement peacefulsolutions for conflict resolution.
How you can participate in changing negative behaviours
What can you as an individual do to help stem this epidemic of violence and bullying amongst our youth? Speak out when you see these types of incidences occurring. Talk with others on practical ways to handle situations when they arise. Schedule community forums at church or other venues to discuss best practices in dealing with deviant behaviours. Share your own experiences which will help others to heal from the past traumatic events that occurred in their lives. Write about what you have witnessed or seen firsthand.
Later this month, our community will have a public opportunityto participate in continuing this discussion of voices speaking out about violence amongst our youth. Pastor Gareth Hodge has invited guests tospeak on this subject during a radio talk show.
Listen to the weekly scheduled programme on Radio Anguilla (95.5 FM) on Saturday morning, 18th May 2013 at 8:30 AM. Join us in voicing how we can address this problem in our community.We need all of you to help our societycreate positive solutions and implement action plans that will effectively impactthe social advancement of our nation.
(Kay M. Ferguson is a creative and professional writer who feels compelled to speak out about social issues that are prevalent in our island community. Should youwish tocontinue thispertinent discussion personally with Kay, you maycall her on 264 476 8735 or 297 8735 or email kayferguson@ymail.com. To contact Pastor Gareth Hodge about the upcoming radio programme, please telephone the Anguilla Drugstore on 264 497 2738.)
