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Barbados Underground

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Adults Failing Our Youth

It is with reluctance this blogmaster highlights the death of 16 year old student who was stabbed to death by a fellow student of similar age from the same school. The taking of the life caused by an argument over $20 that arose from a gambling session. Predictably the Barbados Secondary Teachers Union (BSTU) have…

It is with reluctance this blogmaster highlights the death of 16 year old student who was stabbed to death by a fellow student of similar age from the same school. The taking of the life caused by an argument over $20 that arose from a gambling session.

Predictably the Barbados Secondary Teachers Union (BSTU) have scheduled a meeting tomorrow at 12:30PM at Solidarity House to discuss the matter – the only agenda item – Deadly Violence Within Our School System.

The BU family have been discussing the deterioration in the social fabric of our society from inception of the blog in 2007 and others beyond. The indiscipline playing out in our schools is mirroring the current state of affairs in the wider society.  Why then are we surprised when tragedy strikes as it did last Friday?

There are calls for greater security on school premises, more counselors, improved parenting and the cries are endless.

For over 40 years we have allowed the PSV sector to run amok on the island.

The BSTU, BTU and other unions have been silent when bad apples in the teaching service have perpetrated unprofessional acts (sexual) on students.

Most parents do not attend parent teacher’s meetings because they are ‘busy’

Politicians do not lead by example, case in point Michael Carrington withheld an old man’s money and the then prime minister refused to fire the offender.

Senior teachers appointed to the service based on political affiliation.

The blogmaster does not have the emotional stamina to continue with this blog except to suggest we are finding out what it is “to sow the wind and reap the whirlwind“.

 

 

 

 

 

79 responses to “Adults Failing Our Youth”

  1. Kammie Holder Avatar
    Kammie Holder

    @Donna & Simple Simon President For Life, never underestimate the impact your mentoring is having.

    Donna, some laws can turn a law-abiding citizen into a criminal is a split second never forget that.

    We have misguided priorities where many lack critical thinking and are drunk with power. Many of Hitler soldiers committed atrocities and justified their actions on behalf of the 3rd Reich by saying ” Just a civil servant following instructions”

    Sadly, many persons have adopted that silly dictum of turning a blind eye to wrong and evil thus why we are in shit as a country.

    Over 1600 lawyers and not one have the belly or guts to challenge asinine attire rules for visiting the government of Barbados offices to do business

    1) Shirt tails must be tucked in
    2) No Slippers
    3) No arm Holes
    4) No Short Pants
    5) No Short Dresses

    Yet, these same enforcers see corruption and turn a blind eye for its too much brainpower not to act as a mindless sheep.

    Yesterday, I saw a lady at court to collect maintenance in a country that has the following laws. I enquired how come and my host a senior person said, its more about meeting the service needs of its customers. Oh, I was also told Barbados is about 15 years behind in how a business needs to be conducted and how to serve the public.

    Speed Limit is 35KPH
    No Bare Back in Streets
    No Bare Feet In Streets
    No Loud Music
    All Houses must have concrete roofs
    One Car Per Family
    Zero Tolerance On Bribery
    Opening Hours are Strictly Complied with
    No Littering Absolutely
    No Alcohol Can Be Sold On Sundays

    The reality is the fakes and hypocrites in the dark will condemn those who stand up against ignorance!

  2. Kammie Holder Avatar
    Kammie Holder

    @David, sadly we live in a society which believes man`s only role is an ATM and mothers own the children. Not all fathers are delinquent and some could not be bothered to fight the mothers as malicious protection orders and complaints follow just to be in the life of your kid.

    Mothers in this disruptive age have a hard time raising children in the absence of strong males or fathers. Crime stats show most fathers are missing from the life of incarcerated young men.

    Society needs all hands on deck irrespective of gender, color, class or creed.

  3. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Schools in England have powers to screen and search pupils for prohibited items with or without their consent and the power to seize and confiscate items from pupils.

  4. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Kammie Holder November 13, 2019 11:00 AM
    “Over 1600 lawyers and not one have the belly or guts to challenge asinine attire rules for visiting the government of Barbados offices to do business

    1) Shirt tails must be tucked in
    2) No Slippers
    3) No arm Holes
    4) No Short Pants
    5) No Short Dresses

    Yet, these same enforcers see corruption and turn a blind eye for its too much brainpower not to act as a mindless sheep.”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    You have omitted one Big Sin in the eyes of authoritarian jackasses passing for management.
    .
    “No males must wear earrings”.

    What kind of sh**te lawyers are there in Barbados when such blatant breaches of ordinary citizens’ Constitutional rights take place daily and in plain sight of judicial officers?

    Why don’t some of these young lawyers make a name for themselves as human right lawyers by working pro bono for these disadvantaged users of government services who are daily abused by these little tin pot administrative dictators calling themselves senior officials in the public service?

    Now here is a worthy cause for Grenville P No.2 to take up like a cudgel!
    Or are these ‘rules’ in keeping with his brand morality called manners ISO 9 to 99?

  5. SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife

    Kammie, i ain’t underestimating a thing. I have sweated blood to raise my children. I tell young parents that raising their children will be the hardest but the best job they will ever do. I have worked for 6 employers in my life, each more demanding than the other. Because the truth is even though my children call me a communist, i like money as much as any other person, so i was always looking for better wages, and when i saw such opportunities i moved on. However NONE of my employers have worked me as hard as my children have.

    A paid job even for a demanding employer is a piece of cake, compared to the love, time, money, emotional commitment, and bare brutal hard labor required to raise children WELL

    And you can give my “one car per family” car to another family. I haven’t had a car for more than 20 years, but my driver;s licence is always current. Not “paying maintenance” for a car is one of the best decisions I have ever made. It has permitted me to invest more money in my children’s heads than would otherwise be possible for a person of my social and economic class.

    I have to thank my old man for this. Back in 1978 when i was buying a piece of land he selected it for me, based significantly on the fact that then and now it is on 2 bus good routes, but about 8 to 12 minutes walk from the main roads and pollution. My old man finished school at 11, but he was a very, very wise man.

  6. SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife

    @Miller.

    I love good men, women and children.

    I will correct the bad behavior of a child. I have NEVER given up on a child.

    But to tell the truth i have no time to waste on bad behaved men and women.

    And “no” i have no wish to remove anyone’s testicles.

    And even so yours being 4,000 miles away are safe, so I doan know what you worrying ’bout.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    I I I.

    Sounding like Denis Kellman.

    We know the benefits of good parenting.

    The issue is why are we not producing the best parents and support structures to mitigate the issues at hand.

  8. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife November 13, 2019 12:49 PM
    “And “no” i have no wish to remove anyone’s testicles.”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Is this a contrite plea for forgiveness for your sinful intention to carry out a King Herod-like operation on the male juvenile population of Barbados in order to ‘nip’ in their budding scrotum the spermatozoon of violence lying dormant but just waiting on its female equivalent to grow into an egg of fatal attraction?

    Have you now matured enough to see the ‘dull’ error of your castrating proposition?

    For without young males, with ‘irons’ full of vigor, what would sweet sexy cougars like you, SS, do other than buy mannequins with dicks like chicks raised in “whiteHill”?

  9. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ David what percentage of the population are bad parents ?. It is the abnormal but low percentage that makes the news and the discussion groups. In short ,they are at least 95 % who are competent parents, using your unstated criteria.

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @Vincent

    What matters is a system that generates 40 plus murders in a year not completed.

    What matters is a system that sees a growing subculture within the schools causing teachers to look forward to retirement and does not encourage aspirants to the teaching profession.

    What matters is what is obvious, we have a problem to solve.

  11. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ David BU at 2:11 PM

    Do you honestly believe that lack of parenting caused these murders?

  12. David Avatar
    David

    As a general rule one must consider that good parenting is the ideal and logically should result in a quality society.

  13. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Youth crime is a serious matter, but it does not take a sledge hammer to crack a nut. Any changes must bae proportionate. Schools are not prisons.

    It is going to take more than metal detectors to restore confidence in the safety of Barbadian schools following last Friday’s fatal stabbing of a student on a school campus.

    But the head of Crime Stoppers Barbados Oral Reid stopped short of endorsing teachers’ calls for the deployment of police officers and army soldiers to schools.
    Reid, a security expert who is also the head of security at the University of the West Indies, described the slaying as a wakeup call for Barbadians to come to terms with the reality that the measures that worked for the school system decades ago do not have the same effect in 2019.

    Oral Reid
    The retired senior police officer, who is also executive director of the Caribbean Association of Security Professionals, has called for specially trained security officers to operate within the school plants, installation of cameras covering the blind spots of the school compound, smart metal detectors and the installation of panic buttons.
    Reid argued that while the police and the Barbados Defence Force have the requisite skill sets to secure the schools, he was concerned that such a move will be a drag on police resources while the army was not designed to intervene in civilian matters.
    Reid said: “We have never recommended the big metal detectors as if you are in some custodial institution.

    “Instead, we are looking at the deployment of smart detector solutions, which could be subsumed within the metal structure of a door frame and nobody needs to know that it is there.
    “We have come to the stage since 2016 when we first identified this as one of the solutions, we have now had several incidents where students used metal objects, such as knives and daggers, that have no relation to the subjects they are taking.
    “Apart from the detection, you need the resource persons to carry out the necessary checks.
    “The average security officers that we have here now are not appropriately trained for this environment.
    “So we first need to discuss how we can train that cadre of security officers to provide the support that is needed for our teachers and for the protection of our students.
    “These officers must have the added assistance of cameras place around corridors, as it is with this data that they can investigate any problems”

    Reid stressed that none of these security responsibilities, which include searching students, should be thrust upon teachers. He suggested this is neither their responsibility or a task for which they are trained to handle.
    He said: “A teacher that accepts a position to teach students in a school environment, should only be engaged within the context of their job description. Teachers must not be expected to be trained as military officers and there is an obligation on the part of the state to give them a safe work environment.”
    Reid acknowledged that the measures he proposed would be expensive, suggesting that they could be implemented incrementally.
    He said: “We cannot hide from these issues; we have to face them head-on and see what we can implement incrementally.
    “We may not be able to do all of the smart detectors in all of the schools but let’s do some of the schools, we may not be able to train all of the security officers one time but let’s move towards training some of them.
    “We must accept psychologically that the school is not the same place as it was in the 1970s and 80s; it is changing.”

    But Reid, a former deputy commander of community policing in the Royal Barbados Police Force, is warning against taking security measures to the extreme, noting that any changes to come must maintain an environment conducive to work and study.
    He called for the creation of programmes to deal immediately with children whose behaviour may pose a threat to school safety.
    He told Barbados TODAY: “You have some students, and I strongly believe that it is a minority of students, who present with this kind of behaviour.
    “From the administration’s perspective, they have to examine how quickly they can deal with those individuals who present with challenges in the school environment.
    “We have been doing the same thing over a period of time and those things have not worked, so we need new and creative means of tackling these challenges.”(Quote)

  14. Caleb Pilgrim Avatar
    Caleb Pilgrim

    I once met with a Jesuit Priest, Principal of a Christ The King Catholic High School, a Blue Ribbon School in the US.

    The school maintained a ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY, mandating expulsion for any student found carrying a weapon to school. This even applied to a very bright student, found to be carrying a knife, which the student allegedly needed for protection on the way home in a difficult neighborhood

    Surely, weapon(s) possession, gambling, sex and other sketchy conduct in schools, should be subject to such zero tolerance policy, mandating prompt investigation and expulsion.

  15. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    When we expel problem children we must expel them to another school that is equipped to handle their problems. Releasing them into society does not make the problem go away. It just relocates it for about six hours. There the problems are magnified until they end up in Dodds Prison with the hardened criminals, often making a stop at the Government Industrial School on the way.

    From what I know of the Government Industrial School this is not the ideal place to solve these problems and educate children at the same time.

    We need something in between. Something with less of a stigma that adds to the problem.

  16. Barbados Underground Whistleblower Avatar
    Barbados Underground Whistleblower

    When we expel problem children we must expel them to another school that is equipped to handle their problems.
    Xxxxxxxxxx

    AGREE 200 PERCENT

  17. David Avatar
    David

    We closed Alma Parris?

  18. SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife

    I believe that children under the age of 16 are only removed from school when in school counselling and parental involvement has failed to end the disruptive behavior. Then the students are sent to the Edna Nicholls Center for behavior modification, pyscho therapy etc. Some students with parental consent are also treated as out or in patients of the psychiatric hospital. What we may not want to admit is that mental illness also occurs in children, especially children with a family history of psychiatric illness. There are some families with mental illness/admissions to psychiatric hospitals in and out of Barbados over several generations. Parents of course also know that they can seek psychiatric assistance through the polyclinics.

    Children are not just thrown out into the streets.

  19. David Avatar
    David

    @Simple

    What is the role at Edna Nicholls?

  20. SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife

    @David at 1:29 “We closed Alma Parris”

    Who is “we” David?

    If you mean Ronald Jones and the yes men/yes women in the Ministry of Education why you doan say so?

    Anybody ever ask the Alma Parris principal if he had an opinion on the closing.

    When we were told it was because of low numbers did anybody ask the yes men and yes women in the Ministry of Education to provide the numbers.

    I have a relative who worked in the bus stand adjacent to the Alma Parris. Relative was ourtraged because relative who saw the children coming to school everyday knew that the numbers were FAKE.

    Maybe the media should have asked the Transport Board and the ZR and yellow bus men for the TRUE numbers.

    The Alma Parris School should NEVER have been closed.

  21. David Avatar
    David

    @Simple Simon

    The government represents the people.

  22. SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife

    Dear David: Why do you think that the people cut the @ss of their representative government, 30-0?

    Hint: Maybe by that time the government no longer represented the best interest of the people who had elected them, who were paying their salaries, and it galls me to know it , the same people who are still paying their pensions. That DLP administration will continue to suck on the sore nipples of the tax payers until death takes them, and foolish we, will have to continue paying pensions to their widows and widowers until only God knows how long.

    It makes me feel real-real bad.

    So doan gimme nah we.

  23. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Children under sixteen are not thrown out onto the street but where we throw them is not adequate.

  24. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Alma Parris should have remained open, with the Acting Deputy Head Andrew Skeete taking over. He is not perfect but he tries. He has a vision and is known for motivating children. He would also be good at discipline. The teachers also said they had no problems with him as they had with the Valdez Franklyn person.

    Franklyn moved to the Grantley Adams School and was promptly embroiled in the canteen controversy. I believe he has retired and the same Andrew Skeete has taken over. We shall see how that goes but I believe some progress will be made.

  25. David Avatar
    David

    Interesting comment from Faith Marshall-Harris, according to her there is a global trend of violence (youth violence included). She cited a steep rise in knife crime in the UK. Barbados has a chance to implement an aggressive plan to deal with the problem.

  26. Ironside Avatar
    Ironside

    @ David November 13, 2019 5:14 AM
    @Attorney General
    ++++++++
    The Attorney General said now was not the time for finger-pointing or knee-jerk reactions, as all Barbadians needed to be “putting our heads together to see how we can deal with this issue”. (SC)

    ++++++++
    “not the time for finger-pointing”:

    When will that time come? Next death? Or do we point at the “Man in the Mirror”? Should we point to the sky? [ I recommend it!]
    +++++++

    “putting our heads together”:

    Where? above or bellow the “sand line” ? And where will our “Bajan botsies” be pointing? To the sky?
    ++++++++
    The AG’s phrases represent part of the psycho-social imprinting that crops up everywhere in barbadiana and which prevents us from doing the obvious or doing anything at all. It’s truly Bajan management culture!

    Let’s add: “Metal detectors ruled out” (N.B. even before due diligence/ consultation has been done). Can’t get more “knee-jerk” than that!

    How about “all options on the table?” Why selectively copy American culture?

    I predict more deaths in the schools, precisely because, AS A NATION we have opted to remove religion from it like the Americans. But keep on looking for socio-economic causes! More power to the “made in America” brand!

  27. David Avatar
    David

    The trending is not positive at all given the behaviour manifesting from the youth population.

  28. Ironside Avatar
    Ironside

    Re: Ironside November 17, 2019 4:27 PM

    Typo acknowledged: “bellow” should be “below”

  29. Ironside Avatar
    Ironside

    @ David: November 17, 2019 4:30 PM

    Agreed!

    Believe me I am NOT trying to be sensational when I say: ” I predict more deaths in the schools!”

    There is a spiritual principle at work here. We need to make a “U- turn”!

    I am really getting scared for this country!

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