School facing gang trouble

| 12/03/2015 | 11 Comments

(CNS): Education officials have confirmed that John Gray High School has been dealing with gang rivalries in the school for some time and the fight on the school campus on Monday morning was as a result of those ongoing problems. The assault on the teacher by a teenage girl on Tuesday afternoon was described as a matter “of great concern for the wellbeing of both staff and students” that was being dealt with by police.

Cayman News Service

John Gray High School

Following the two violent incidents, the Department of Education Services (DES) said that a meeting was held between the RCIPS, the ministry and DES staff to agree a plan of action.

“This plan of action identified short and long term ‘actions’, which includes mediation between the groups and programmes to provide support for associated needs of the students,” the department stated.” This demonstrates the challenge schools face when situations in the community escalate in schools. The school responded appropriately and promptly.”

Although just two 15-year-old boys were arrested after the fight, sources told CNS that the brawl was a major incident involving at least seven students. Police said no weapons were involved but other sources have reported that at least one student had a knife. The fight, it has been confirmed, was a continuation of another dispute that occurred at Camana Bay over the weekend. Dart’s town centre development, especially around the cinema area, is becoming a popular hangout for young people out of school and therefore another point of focus for gang tensions and rivalries.

In the wake of a violent week, school officials said the gang fight was part of that “longstanding situation which the school, parents and the RCIPS have been working in partnership to resolve” but the second incident of concern was an isolated one, which is now a police matter.

“Appropriate support will be provided to the student,” officials added about the 15-year-old girl, who was scheduled to appear in court yesterday. The teenager is understood to have assaulted a male teacher in a classroom, apparently over her use of a mobile phone during a lesson.

In the short official statement following the two incidents in the school over a two-day period, the Education Ministry and the DES said they were committed to ensuring the safety of staff and students in schools.

“This requires cooperation and collaboration with other agencies in order to be successful,” they stated.

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Category: Crime, Police

Comments (11)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    The best is when it is a police officers daughter/son. You should see how things get covered up very very quickly!!!
    Expats stay away, not worth it.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Self-respect, manners and an attitude to be the best educated HS student starts in the HOME!
    Children learn what they LIVE….
    *.ie if every time their parent open their mouth it is laced with profanity:- the children will speak that way
    *If every time there is an argument and the first thing the parent grabs or say they will get is a weapon:- the children learn that ppl don’t discuss their differences; they go beserk and violent
    *If all nite a girl is being touched and fondled by a male or female in their home:- the child feels violated and then ashamed they had no control over their bodies;
    *If a child is left for hours on end every day to fill their time in useful ways; the child will find most times unsavory company and learn what you don’t want them to learn!
    Truancy is one of the biggest contributors and it is mind boggling to see Police cross children on the streets during school hours and turn a blind eye!
    Our educational system has failed our children miserably with each successive gov’t trying one-man-upmanship instead of tackling the problems head on and all the while sadly denying the truth which stares them in the face!
    Because of the familial marriages; ie cousins marrying cousins; we not only have the Cayman Ataxia disease but the mental illness abounds as its passed from generation to generation. We have to return to Junior High so we have another opportunity to try to catch the warning signs we may have missed whilst in elementary school.
    We need a special-wing for troubled children and instead of forcing them to do ten subjects; we give them English and Math whilst they’re in Vo-Tech.
    As they’re in Vo-tech they’ll learn plumbing, electrical, mechanics, mixology etc preparing them to be able to sufficiently care for themselves. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that not all children are academically inclined; however they quickly grasp Vo-Tech.
    We need to have a summer program or Saturday classes for those who’s been suspended too.
    Until we admit there are many varied reasons for our children expressing their frustrations thru violent behaviour; we are staring at a blank wall and continuing this injustice against our children and our future……
    We’ve got to take our heads out of the sand and deal with the many different issues a child brings into the learning environment. We can change this but it will take a firm approach to make the necessary changes.
    Another factor in this very sad situation is that the children are in court; not one parent standing in the dock with him or her!
    Until we force parents to be responsible and stop punishing only the child we will continue this revolving door. The Childrens Law caters to varied forms of neglect and abuse however we focus only mainly on the physical. Bonaventure and Frances Bodden homes are available however when children are removed from their homes there has to be a continium of family counseling, parenting classes etc and all mandatorially imposed by the Courts. When parents find themselves in Court for failing to obey the Court orders and the likelihood of a possiblity of imprisonment and hefty monetary fines; then and only then will we see the change we want to see.
    The parents of these unruly children will quickly get the drift!!
    DCFS and Family Resource Center will have to change their work hours as well as having every weekend off as their officers will have to do shift work in order to assist the Courts with the orders they’ve put in place.
    We can make the changes; we just have to take the bulls by the horns and simply DO SO and the sooner the better…….

  3. Anonymous says:

    Zero tolerance and holding parents responsible along with the offenders. That is the only way to regain some sort of control.

  4. Rick says:

    If you really cared about the staff and students, this would not have been ALLOWED to happen in the first place. Stop allowing bean-counters to make decisions about education and schooling. Give the schools the latitude to manage education and hold them accountable for results. Government and politics should leave behaviour management and education to the people who are experts at it.

  5. Anonymous says:

    On a further note to my comment, the education system has moved to an ALL inclusion policy wher they instruct schools not to excluderchildren as
    * they have nowhere to be sent to as home life is diabolical
    * government has been so worried about balancing books, they have taken away the facilities necessary to provide an environment for these children that are in almost every class and disrupt the learning of the majority of kids at the schools that want to learn but must listen to day in and day out teachers having to deal 60% of their time with disciplining the unruly whilst the ruly suffer from lack of teacher attention to do what they are paid to which is educate NOT babysit because parents want to ignore their kids problems for 8 hours a day.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Totally agree withe the first comment,we were warned about gang activity in schools 20 years ago, it was dismissed as “friendship groups”! The problem has escalated as the gang members of 20 years ago now send their offspring to school with no ability to sanction their own kids because of their own activities, what kids see kids do!

    • Anonymous says:

      4:05, indiscipline in schools was also explained in the 1980s and early 90s by an ex pat hating senior Education official who said that it was because the “foreign teachers” and principals did not beat the kids enough. He was supported by another senior education official (also a beater) who said it was because the foreign school principals were not holding “proper Caymanian devotions” in the morning. I wish I could name names. But the “devotions” man is having his own sorrows with his son. Apparently it did not work. The two of them and a couple of other senior officials made life terrible for all ex pats in education at that time.

      • Shhhhhh. says:

        Reminds me of a headmaster who once served at Prospect Primary, Mr. Walker. He imposed discipline at Prospect,but where is he now?

  7. John says:

    Everybody is so quick to blame the schools. These kids are the way they are because of their parenting or lack their of.

    Don’t impose on the school to restrict activities and enforce discipline, make the parents do it.

    I have been out of school for close to 20 years and it seems that in that time parents have turned on the teachers. If a teacher ever wronged me at school (which almost never happened) and came home to tell my parents about it, their first response was “I am pretty sure you deserved it”. Now a days the parents are on the phone to the school demanding answers…total BS.

    • Anonymous says:

      And they are in the phone to politicians who influence what goes on in schools in case they lose that vite.

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