As concerns mount over the surging violence in Barbados’ schools, a counsellor is urging a more targeted, therapeutic approach rather than the piecemeal interventions currently being used.
The CEO of Supreme Counselling for Personal Development, Shawn Clarke, made these observations following the second violent incident at the Frederick Smith Secondary School in just two weeks. In the latest incident, a student reportedly struck a teacher in the head with a rock, sending the teacher to hospital. The troubling act follows several altercations recorded at other schools earlier this year.
While Clarke welcomed government efforts to engage the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) and the Barbados YouthADVANCE Corps in new school support programmes, he stressed that such actions must be complemented by thorough behavioural and mental health evaluations for troubled students, particularly in the light of limited financial and human resources available to schools. He insisted that a collaborative effort is needed to tackle the root causes of students’ violent and disruptive behaviour.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say that the management of the schools have lost control,” Clarke told Barbados TODAY. “What I would probably say is that the management of the schools need help. They have been crying out for help for a very, very long time.”
He added, “I think what we need right now is for a serious collaboration, where the government sees external agencies that can lend the kind of support that the Ministry of Educational Transformation needs. Certainly the schools are crying out for help to deal with some of these young people who are exhibiting these negative violent behaviours, some of which is often a symptom of different issues.”
According to him, many of the behavioural issues stem from deeper problems including untreated trauma, family dysfunction, a lack of positive role models, unfiltered exposure to negative influences on social media, and unaddressed mental health challenges.
“So instead of the military trying to do it all on its own,” he said, “we need to have agencies come in and work with these young people.”
Clarke also criticised the current approach to school suspensions, describing it as grossly ineffective when students are simply sent home with no support in place, or plan to help them reintegrate positively back into the school system.
“I am one who subscribed and will continue saying that, for example, if a child is suspended from school and he or she is just sent home for 10 days without any kind of intervention that’s a waste of time—that’s like spinning a top in mud.
“We have enough organisations on the island that these young people can be suspended in the care of professionals that will put programmes in place to work with them. Not only during the suspension but for as long as it takes to try to correct whatever needs to be corrected. Try to deal with whatever challenges these young people are going through,” he explained.
The veteran counsellor also raised concerns about the limited time currently allocated for intervention programmes in schools, which he believes severely undercuts their effectiveness at any level.
“We have to realise that giving organisations 35 minutes in a week to work with young people who are exhibiting behavioural challenges, to work with young people that clearly have underlying issues that need to be addressed… to give me 35 minutes to remedy that, to try to work with that, it’s not working,” he explained. “The time has to be set out in such a way that the agencies and the professionals, the psychologists and so on, would have more time weekly to work with these young people and their families that need the intervention.”
While acknowledging the need for a national response, Clarke believes certain schools now require more urgent and focused strategies.
“There are some schools where the approach needs to be more targeted,” he asserted. “These schools that are exhibiting these problems…we have to move in with a system.”
The post ‘Holistic solution needed’ for school violence appeared first on Barbados Today.
