Who cares about warring children?

THE EDITOR: Who cares until they lock our neck and put a knife to our throats, that is. Why do our powers-that-be always wait until things are out of hand before they do what people have been begging them to do for ages? Years ago, Ella Andall sang prophetically: “There’s a missing generation out there — who cares? Who cares? ... If we don’t find them, they’re surely going to find us.” Well, they’ve found us all right and we certainly don’t like it. Every year the number of disaffected youths grows, every year more hordes of society-created barbarians are spewed out of what passes for schools.

People holler for more jails, more security, more policemen, boot camps, corporal punishment in schools (do you know that many children are beaten for what they cannot help, that they have learning problems?) The Government speaks easily of spending $100 million on repairing President’s House and other grand expenditures. What about “repairing” our young people? Rainbow Rescue is taking boys off the streets. The Government has grudgingly given them a house but it’s so run-down that they cannot move in until extensive repairs have been made. They will have to find that money themselves. Meanwhile, out of the donations which they receive, $5,000 has to be spent each month in rental for their Bournes Road address. Marion House, which also takes in homeless boys, was started as a pilot project — today, there’s still only the one Marion House. Think what the $3 million spent on the Hanuman statue could have done for these homes.

There has been endless — and growingly agitated — talk on the situation of violence and crime involving our young people, many sociological reports, etc. Where’s the action? And I don’t mean beefed-up security, weapons checks, etc. The only action that is going to count in the long run is that which transforms our deviant youth into stable and productive people. Has anyone ever asked the warring school children, “What is your problem? What is it that you want?” When children behave like this, they are trying to send a message. They are crying out to be heard. They feel cheated, deprived, “conned,” marginalised, put into second-class schools and treated like fifth-class people. Their self-esteem has been crushed and they resent it bitterly. Their anger boils over, sometimes in self-destructive ways. And every year the number grows.

Has the Ministry of Education ever invited the help and opinion of our local psychologists and other child specialists? Did you know that the Guidance Unit is so woefully understaffed that one counsellor is expected to service five schools? There should be a counsellor assigned to each school and, in some cares, more than one. We need, as of yesterday: (1) a monumental increase in people being trained in child psychology, counselling, diagnostic testing, remedial teaching and social work; (2) use of such professionals as we already have, especially in the troubled schools; (3) invitation of qualified help from overseas (including Caribbean countries) to help us while our people are being trained in the necessary skills to help the youth. Who cares? Our children are turning schools into war zones. They are chopping, shooting and dealing in drugs. They are locking our necks and putting knives to our throats. They have us peeping out fearfully from behind our barricaded homes. They have us writing and talking about them obsessively. They are invading our dreams and turning our lives into nightmares. Yes, we are starting to care all right. But what are we doing?

JOY MOORE
St Joseph