Schools breeding ground for bullies

Bullying is becoming one of the most disturbing types of violence in schools and it has even spread to primary schools, while racial slurs and ethnic hostilities have now found their way into these schools. These were among the horrifying disclosure made in the report of Prof Ramesh Deosaran, on “Benchmarking Violence and Delinquency in the Secondary School: Towards a Culture of Peace and Civility,” which was presented to the Minister of Education, Senator Hazel Manning, on May 28. Among several recommendations, the report calls on the Ministry of Education to review its policy on corporal punishment.  Sunday Newsday was able to get a copy of the report, in which some 21 measures of school violence and delinquency, and six measures of classroom disruption were re-identified. They are: students’ unruly behaviour in class, skipping classes, damaging school property, stealing, cheating, being rude to teachers and parents, using obscene language, getting in trouble with the police, using illegal drugs, smoking, drinking alcohol, threatening and bullying other students, carrying weapons in school, using force for extortion, fighting without a weapon and fighting with a weapon.

When it comes to bullying, students had innumerable tales of horror. The report said: “Too many students are being taken advantage of in school, often beaten, insulted and chased for their lunches, money or other possessions. Extortions are rampant. And the young ones are mainly the victims. “Given the pronounced ethnic diversity in our secondary schools, it is quite horrendous to find that racial slurs and ethnic hostilities have now found their way into these schools. Since ethnic diversity in our schools does provide splendid opportunities for peace and harmony programmes; but to leave the diversity so exposed and vulnerable to ethnic hostilities is to drive many victimised students not only away from a good education but to retaliate with violence in their own defence. Such bullying and ethnic hostilities are apparently not confined to any one type of school.” With regard to demographic factors and deviance, the study found, for example, that substance abuse (drugs, smoking and drinking) between boys and girls is about the same level (about 50 percent for both). For physical violence, however, males account for 70 percent of the acts and girls 30 percent.

Racial background has revealed some significant differences as well. For example, students of African descent account for 40 percent of the acts of violence and students of East Indian descent account for 19 percent, while mixed groups account for 38 percent. Social class background seemed to make little or no difference in student violence or stealing. However, there was some evidence to suggest that the higher the social class background of the student, the more likely he or she is to engage in drug abuse or be verbally aggressive to others.
The report,  compiled by Prof Deosaran of the Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice of the UWI, was commissioned by the Secondary Education Modernisation Programme Coordination Unit (SEMPCU) of the Ministry of Education. The report,  also essentially found that the “higher” a student’s level of civil attitudes, self-esteem, moral and spiritual values, the less amount of violence, delinquency and classroom disruption such a student commits. Those who scored lower on these indicators can be deemed to be at risk, in a zone of vulnerability towards deviance. The report also showed that students with both parents at home are much more likely to be at an assisted school than a Government Secondary school. At one assisted school 90 percent of the students had both parents at home as compared to only 45 percent at an urban Composite school.  However,  a sociological context of the school seems to play a part as well. For example, a rural Junior Secondary school has 64 percent of its students with both parents at home while an urban Junior Secondary has only 46 percent and a secondary government-assisted school in “this study,”  has 83 percent with both parents at home. Additionally, it was also noted that the lower the social class background of the student, the larger the family size at home.

According to the report, this finding suggested that our public schools are soundly stratified with an inter-locking system of academic and socio-economic differences.  The obvious and difficult challenge is how to close this gap since it has implications for student delinquency. Psychological conditions emerge from this stratification. One, students from the Government Secondary schools have lower academic aspiration and expectations than those from assisted schools. There is also a bigger gap between the educational aspirations and the educational expectations. Further, the older the student is, the more likely he or she is to be delinquent. In terms of overall deviance, students at Form 1 will have about 11 Xs while those at Forms three and five, will have X’s of 17 and 21 respectively.  However, an important revelation emerged for age and classroom disruptions. The students of Form three show a higher amount of classroom disruption (X = 30) than those at either Form 1 (X =20) or at Form 5 (X=24).  The relationship is therefore curvilinear rather than linear.