A YOUNGSTER IS STABBED TO DEATH
Once again, the screams of a mother and the despair of a father were recorded on the front pages of our newspapers. This time it was the homicide of a young man who was barely 15 years old. He was stabbed to death by another of his cohort. The dead boy is from the C C Sweeting School and the other is from T A Thompson.
The mother of the boy regretted that she was not there to protect him. She said she wanted to move him to Orlando for his safety because he had been bullied so many times in school. The other kid, well we don’t know the back story of the alleged murderer. The police had a theory that they espoused. They say that it was gang related. They were largely unsympathetic in their public utterances. Their position seemed to be don’t blame us. The issue of what children do is that for parents, they said.
On one level that is true. Mark Humes who is a Member of Parliament was in the Parliament sounding off about the responsibility of parents.
Two problems arise here. The father of the dead boy put it best when he said to parents do not put your children in the public school system because they are not safe. The public school system, the Government therefore, has the responsibility to make sure that the public school system is safe. The police play a major part in that. The minister made the spurious distinction that it happened off campus. The Government is also to provide a safe environment for public activities.
Secondly, there was a posting by the boy who is alleged to have done the killing on Facebook where he predicted that he was going to in his words “jook “up the dead boy who he called a pussy. Where was the Minister of National Security and his technology.
The police ventured that this was some kind of gang killing or ritual. There were fulsome explanations about how the public school system is riddled with gangs.
The Minister of Education Deacon Jeffery Lloyd could only describe the horror of listening to the inconsolable screams of the little ones when he went to school.
The press told the story of a young girl who begged the stabber not to do it. She promised him money if he would just walk away. To no avail. He killed the boy anyway.
Later in the week Chairman of the PLP Senator Fred Mitchell told the police that there are social issues that must be addressed in the fight against crime. Technology is not the answer. He said this as the Minister for National Security rolled out more technology. This time microphones are being put around the islands so they can hear gunshots when they go off and respond more quickly. Quite frankly this is a complete waste of money
What we suggest is that there be more social programmes in the schools. One might be to teach children about what death actually means. It is not something you record on your video camera in your phone.
Death is something that should be avoided at all costs.
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