PETER PAYS FOR PAUL

The suspending of classes at the Tranquillity Government Secondary School following on last Tuesday’s attack on students of St Mary’s College allegedly by students of Tranquillity is a horrible example of the majority being punished for acts of indiscipline by a relative minority.

The correct procedure would have been for the school authorities and/or the Ministry of Education to have conducted thorough investigations into the incident(s) and firm action taken against those found in breach. Instead, all students enrolled at Tranquillity have had their education interrupted, including scores who are hard at work preparing for the 2004 Caribbean Examinations Council’s ‘O’ Level exams, or regular term examinations. As a result the school’s name has been hurt, and this in addition to the disgraceful sullying caused by the reported lawless action of several students on Tuesday last. The clearly hasty action of suspending of classes was overkill — and a wholly unnecessary case of Peter paying for Paul. We have always maintained that indiscipline by students, whether in or or out of school, should be firmly dealt with. And the students who misbehaved on Tuesday need to be disciplined.  The Tranquillity schoolchildren, who reportedly armed themselves with baseball bats and bottles to attack St Mary’s College students, could very well have found themselves on extremely serious charges today.

Some of the male students may have mistakenly believed that their action was macho. Instead, on reflection, the reasonably intelligent among them should have the courage to condemn it, and the alleged sequence of events that led up to it, as stupid and disgraceful. The school authorities and the Ministry of Education should turn over to the Police the results of any investigations conducted into Tuesday’s affair and/or what led up to it. Those who engaged themselves in the violent acts of behaviour must be made to understand that the society does not and will not condone their actions. Neither can it afford to. Regrettably, there are misguided young people today, who, should what occurred on Tuesday be swept under the proverbial carpet, will see official inaction as a sign of weakness and be prepared to hail the transgressors as heroes. Those who took part in the violence must be shown that what they did was wrong, and that when the authorities speak of zero tolerance for untoward action, they are not bluffing. But tough action by the school, the Ministry of Education and/or the Police will not have the desired results unless parents are prepared to cooperate, both by the proper supervision of their children and by the setting of positive examples. In addition, the children of different schools should be taught that there are productive ways open to them to prove, if such proof is held to be necessary, that they are just as good or better than those they see as rivals. These clearly do not include the use of baseball bats on others, but by ‘beating books’ to do better at CXC ‘O’ Level (and Advanced Level) examinations, and by being better at cricket, football, athletics and swimming than those at competing schools. Mindless violence is not the answer.