By Robert Andre Emmanuel
Government interventions to reduce youth crime should be long-term, and not temporary.
That’s the view of the President of the Antigua and Barbuda Union of Teachers (A&BUT) Casroy Charles who echoed sentiments shared by education officials in recent days.
Educators, including the Director and Deputy Director of Education, have emphasised the need for a comprehensive strategy to address the issue of violence committed by young people and gang culture.
Speaking to Observer media, Charles expressed deep concern over the rising tide of violence among youth.
“It is very alarming that we are at a point where young people think the most appropriate way to settle disagreements is to resort to violence,” Charles stated.
“Disputes is not new to young people…however, in previous years, we would have settled those disagreements—[although] at the time persons might say it was done in an unfavourable way – but I can’t recall at any time persons would have resorted to such acts of violence to settle those disagreements,” he added.
The decriminalisation of marijuana in 2018 has added another layer of complexity to the situation, with Charles stating that “some teachers are terrified” as it has becoming increasingly difficult to determine some students’ state of mind, potentially leading to unpredictable behaviour.
“When that child is intoxicated or high, chances are that they will have an out of character behaviour and responses, so teachers are kind of cautious as they approach students in the upcoming school year,” he explained.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne has announced several measures to address the issue, including mandatory prayers in public schools and a night-time curfew for individuals under 18.
Charles reflected on these initiatives, noting that prayers have always been instituted in schools—which echoes similar statements by the Deputy Director of Education, Dr E Jonah Greene.
“It’s good to see that they are doing something to try to arrest the situation, but my plea to the government and the Ministry of Education remains the same: we are engaging in interventions when things are at a critical stage, however, when we perceive them to be to a standard that we think it’s [manageable], we withdraw that support,” Charles said.
He referenced when education officials called various entities together to address incidents of students engaging in violence at locations such as the bus stations.
He suggested that despite the ministry developing management systems, these weren’t sustained.
“I’m hoping that when these new interventions are put into place, we are more intentional in terms of taking a look towards ensuring that what we plan to do is done to the best of our ability and stability, so that we don’t have this problem reoccurring in our society because the truth is this violence didn’t escalate overnight.
“There were subtle signs the previous years which we would have failed to address, that we overlooked, so it’s at a critical point now,” Charles added.
