On 28 November 2000 I visited the Probation Department in Bridgetown Barbados to inquire about the functions of the Department in connection with the laws under which the Department operates:-
1) The juvenile offenders
2) The probation of offenders
3) The maintenance and their respective regulations/rules
4) Prison welfare and after care service
I had a very interesting meeting and I learnt much about the youth and the rage among them inBarbadosand otherCaribbeanIslands. However I noticed that in spite of the problems the youth face, there are certain procedures in place to work with and help the young offenders which we don’t have inAnguilla. Financial assistance may not always be available but through efforts of the Department and other departments such as the Welfare Department, the Drug Rehabilitation Unit, the Psychiatric Hospital etc. such problems are brought under control. I was quite alarmed when I heard about the rage among the youth. A rage which a social scientist of an international organisation believes may help to explain some of the violent acts which often erupt inBarbadosand theCaribbeanas a whole. It is the kind of violence that leaves people shaking their heads and worrying where the region is heading.
When I think of Anguillaknowing what we had and shared 20 – 25 years ago to what we have now, the social problems and especially the violence and rage among our youth and that nothing has been put in place for them I tremble. However I discovered that evidence of the rage among the youth was chronicled in a report, entitled “A portrait of adolescent health in the Caribbean 2000”. It is a thirty-eight page document which I understood was distributed sometime around the 22 November 2000 to about twenty-five parliamentarians from throughout the Caribbean who were meeting in theBahamas to launch theCaribbean movement of parliamentarians for population and development. The elected officials were assembled by the United Nations Fund for population activities, an agency whose headquarters are inNew York and which has been financing population programmes inBarbados and otherCaribbean states for years.
The issue of violence and anti-social behaviour among young people in the Islands that range from Barbados, Jamaica, Dominica, the Bahamas, Grenada, Guyana, St. Lucia and Antigua. It is stated that more than 17,000 youths, 75% of whom were black, with the rest drawn from East Indian, Amerindian, white and Asian families were interviewed. Some 1,819 Barbadian youths answered questions put to them by researchers. Some of the findings suggest that the problem of violence among Barbadian and other West Indian youth is far more deep-seated than many experts had believed. Many of the young people surveyed reported a history of violence in their lives the report stated. About 18% state that they have been physically abused, most by an adult in their home; and one in ten continue to worry about being physically abused. But that’s not all. Many of them remain worried about either being sexually abused, most frequently by adults, either at home or outside of it. For some adolescents, the threat of violence is woven deeply in their experience of themselves and their world the report stated. For instance, two out of every five young people surveyed inBarbadosand other countries often think about hurting or killing others; about an eighth of the teenagers have tried at least once to kill themselves. I know of at least two young 14 year old boys who talk about killing themselves and one of their parents called me and told me their son tried to hang himself with a rope.
Continuing on the report more than 10% of the youths have been in a fight in which weapons were used. At least 12% reported carrying a weapon to school. More than 16% belong to gangs. Some 7% were knocked unconscious as a result of an act of violence. A young 16 year old female said to the researchers that 12, 13 & 14 year olds whom she knew in her neighbourhood own guns and shoot them off as a symbol of their manhood. The teenagers explained that rage, physical or sexual abuse or both; skipping school; their parents’ mental health problems, parental violence or suicide were factors in their violent ways. Theft and damage to property are not uncommon according to the report. Stealing from parents or other family members is the most common type of theft, followed by shoplifting. Specifically about a quarter of the adolescents admitted stealing from their parents or other relatives. About 18% of them said they had deliberately damaged other people’s property. More than 11% acknowledged taking something from a store without paying for it. Slightly less than 3 per cent acknowledge entering a building to steal . Some of those actions can be traced to their emotional state. Many of them consider themselves to be generally happy but almost 17% were generally sad, angry and irritable. While about 15% said they don’t believe they would reach the age of 25, 12% said they had attempted to kill themselves. Even so, the picture which emerged from the study showed that there was some good news. The researchers said that the health of the youth overall in thoseCaribbeancountries gave them a mixed picture. For instance, “a majority of the young people are doing well”. Most of them described their parents as men and women who care about them. Seven out of eight see their home as a “safe place”; half reported no health problems at all; few of them smoke cigarettes and drug use is relatively low. Close to two- thirds haven’t engaged in sex. Given these responses, refraining from intercourse appears to be a continuous decision the report stated.
Since 1998 I am constantly dealing with students who are engaging in acts of violence at the ALHCS. They are doing so in school as well as out of school. These students form gangs and arm themselves with weapons as a means of settling their disputes. It is disheartening to know young children (or I could even say ‘babies’) engaging in sexual intercourse, using drugs and alcohol in school, skipping classes, shoplifting, vandalizing school property, using some of the dirtiest language and worst of all threatening to kill teachers and students. Sad to say, these behavioural problems are seemingly out of control and more than the school authorities can actually handle. It appears that all efforts have been exhausted in trying to cope with such students.
I have visited the homes of some of these children and parents themselves are crying out for help. What I have noticed that many of these children come from broken homes and live with a single parent who is out working most of the time. The parent or parents themselves are frustrated and most of the time they too become very abusive and may even agree to sending their own child to jail because they don’t know what else to do.
I am not an old person and when I compare the behaviour of some of these children today to those a few years ago I just cannot remain quiet. What has happened to good manners, respect, humility and genuine love? There was one incident when I saw a student stand before the Principal and blatantly blurted out, without any fear or one bit of respect, “YOU DON’T KNOW WHO YOU ARE DEALING WITH”.
I ask these questions. Are we going to wait until a teacher, boy or girl or police officer get killed at the school to do something? God forbid! Will the year 2001 begin the same way at school? I am pleading to the community, the churches and Government for us to sit down and work out something – some plan of action to grab our youth before it is too late. We must put some measures in place to help our young people or else our beloved littleAnguillais going to be an unhappy place. May God give us the wisdom to find a solution today.
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
