Having learned to behave like animals from parents, politicians, police and pastors, Bahamian high school students are a bomb waiting to explode. And Minister of Education Desmond Bannister got a taste of that yesterday.
Just as senior police officers, school administrators and the minister of Education were set to go on a walkabout, the area near C V Bethel High School turned into a war zone.
A riot broke out between warring gangs with students and other thugs throwing rocks and one student brandishing a gun.
After hearing the reports of violence just two weeks after the school year started, Minister of Education Desmond Bannister took a hands-on approach. He wanted to see firsthand how the behaviour of students degraded once left the school campus.
Stationing himself at a plaza near C V Bethel High School, the Minister quickly got a taste of trouble as a swarm of students descended upon the plaza. Within minutes, young men, not in school uniforms, started to clash with students from a nearby private school.
Three people were arrested.
Thinking ahead, school administrators decided this year to station “sentries” at the plaza with Senior masters patrolling the area every day until 4:00pm, admonishing students on their behaviour and encouraging them to go home.
Still, the release of over 1,400 students, at the same time, in a concentrated area can lead to confrontations, especially as kids leave the discipline of school and enter a volatile after school environment.
Eulease Beneby, C V Bethel principal, wants a police presence in the area immediately after school lets out. Business owners, parents and residents in the area agree.
Following the shooting of Rashad Rolle, an eighth grade T A Thompson student, on Monday, community members in the area voiced concern that the shooting signaled an escalation of violence between and against students.
The terrible examples set by irresponsible parents, corrupt politicians, crooked cops and perverted pastors has taken its toll on Bahamian youth.
We are raising a generation of undisciplined animals who are responsible for the future of The Bahamas.
