The Tribune

WHEN our children walk out of our doors to go to school on a morning, we want their bags to be packed with the things they need for school.

Pens, pencils, rulers, their completed homework from the night before. What we do not want is for those bags to be carrying weapons to school.

Listen to the children themselves, though, and that’s exactly what they say is happening.

One 16-year-old CC Sweeting student we spoke to yesterday said students “definitely” carry weapons to school – and he along with other students we talked to all highlighted the problems of violence and gang culture in school.

Another student, aged 15, said that “everyone just riding with gangs” and that students felt afraid to walk home from school. A number of students talked about the pressure to be part of gangs to avoid bullying.

We should be shocked – but the truth is we have known this to be the case for some time.

Psychiatrist Dr David Allen shared the sentiments of the students when speaking earlier this month following the fatal stabbing of ninth-grade student Perry Rolle Jr.

“We can’t have a country where children can’t walk home safely,” he said. “Kids should be allowed to go to school safely and walk home safely.”

He continued: “Kids are in gangs whether they want to be or not… and when travelling home there are certain streets they’re allowed to walk on and other streets they can’t.”

Former gang leader Carlos Reid agreed that the country has a gang problem – and that it is organised.

He said: “Now we have in this country where we have moved from youth gangs to organised gangs and here is the problem, once money is involved, you’re in trouble. These brothers are now being funded by the drug trade and not just the drug trade but the gun trade.”

Fortunately, both the students themselves and Dr Allen are united in one approach to deal with the problem: mentorship.

Students called for teachers and administrators and others to do more to reach out to those children pressured to be in gangs – and earlier this month, Dr Allen also suggested a plan where ex-gang leaders are paid to escort children to and from school safely.

This is not a new problem, but it is one that it is past time to address. If we do not, we risk losing another generation of youngsters to crime.

The words of one particular student yesterday were heartbreaking, one who admitted to being a gang member.

He talked about “being pushed to do things that I don’t want to do actually makes me think about what is going to happen to me if I continue on this route I’m taking”.

Some of these children who are joining gangs are doing so for self-preservation, or through peer pressure. At this age, they are as much victims themselves as anyone, and every day we fail to give them an alternative path is a day closer to their losing their chances for more in life.

We need innovative solutions – starting with mentorship to give those children another voice to listen to, another ear they can share their problems with. We need improvements in security to make it more difficult for children to have weapons at school.

We need safe ways for children to get home. And we need ways to encourage parents to be more engaged too, to help youngsters as much as possible.

Somewhere, tomorrow morning, one of those children walking out of our doors to go to school will be putting a knife in their schoolbag. The time to act to find ways to stop that is now.