Identity issues and parenting are two of the issues that have been identified as probable causes of the recent surge of violence in schools, the latest of which was a stabbing incident at the St. Leonard’s Boys’ School.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Director of the Life Intervention and Support Services (LISS), George Greaves said that this is therefore one of the areas that they would like to look at in the near future.
“The one thing that we would be looking at is how adolescents deal with identity issues because we believe that some of the problems that we are seeing may be related to that too. Self-esteem and who they are or who they think they are and who their family or their church kind of made them to be. So we want to look at identity issues and how young adults deal with those identity issues.”
Shauntee Walters, also a Director at the LISS, said that parenting is another area of concern as she believes that many of the issues that are seen in society stem from the home and sometimes, some of these parents need help and as a result, they would like to assist in this regard.
“One of the other areas that we are going to be focusing on is parenting. A lot of the challenges that – I believe – that we are facing in the schools starts in the home and the reality is that parenting is the one occupation or job that you have that does not come with a manual and parents need help. So we are going to be spending some time working with parents and hopefully it would make a difference in the school setting as well.”
She stated that one of the areas that they would be working on in this regard is helping parents understand the difference between discipline and punishment.
“I think that one of the first things that comes to mind as far as parents are concerned is the difference between discipline and punishment. I find that a lot of the parents are not quite clear on the differences between those two things. And how to reconnect with your child, especially when you child is an adolescent, I find that a lot of parents have difficulty connecting at that point when the adolescent is testing the boundaries so to speak and the parents don’t know how to navigate that period in their life.”
Walters said that the incidents that are occurring in the schools are also a microcosm of what is taking place on a societal level and therefore must be dealt with accordingly.
“What I would say to that is that a lot of the challenges that we are seeing in the schools are challenges that exist in the wider society and there are some cases where if you deal with it only in the schools, it is not necessarily going to fix things. You need to deal with them at a societal level.”
At the time, both LISS Directors were speaking at a press conference prior to their two day Grief and the Human Condition Seminar at the Sky Mall Conference Centre.