Gun and gang violence, though unfortunate and sickening has become the norm in T&T. And while it has become customary for many to hear and witness it daily, society must become more motivated to take drastic action as the authorities cannot do it alone to reduce gun and gang violence.
Criminologist and principal of the Caribbean Institute for Security and Public Safety, Ian Ramdhanie, said, “In the whole scheme of things, it is almost laughable that with just 1.4 million people in a land mass of 5,131 square kilometres and with such crimes being committed by a relatively small percentage of persons, less than five per cent, we cannot get a grip on this.”
Responding on the topic of gun and gang violence and the impact it is having on the nation's students and teachers, Ramdhanie explained: “When gang and gun violence occur in society, by their very nature, it impacts heavily and negatively on students and teachers because they do not take place in a vacuum. There are always children and other adults who are directly and indirectly affected, be it father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt cousin, friend or classmate.”
Critical of how immune society had become to crime in general, Ramdhanie urged: “If this is not tackled head-on, students and teachers will also become immune to gang and gun violence. If not treated with the required urgency, it will soon happen. I am already seeing such trends.” His comments followed two weeks after 15-year-old Joel Huggins of Almond Court, Morvant, was shot dead.
Huggins, who attended the Success Laventille Secondary School was killed on October 15, while at home with his younger sister. He was the third student to die by the gun, from that school, since the start of the year.
Denilson Smith, 17, of Mulrain Trace, Picton and Mark Richards, 15, of Soogren Trace, Picton, were both killed on January 21, after gunmen pulled them out of a taxi and executed them along Picton Road.
Referring to those incidents, Ramdhanie said citizens needed to stop hiding behind claims that gang and gun violence appeared to be taking place only in some areas and schools as compared to others.
Seeking to explain this rationale, he questioned: “What are the sociological, psychological and criminogenic circumstances that lead to this?”
“This does not say that other types of crimes do not take place in other communities and schools. But the most heinous ones are arguably the gang and gun related ones,” he continued.
He also trained his guns on the media at large: “We also have the fact that these crimes are hidden away from and by the media for certain schools. If you talk to parents and students in these other schools, they will tell you what is also going on. Why is there an imbalance? The media has to take some blame here.”
Examining the impact of gang and gun violence on students, Ramdhanie questioned what systems were in place to help the classmates of murdered students as he as said they would need social support on how to cope after someone was killed.
“Those who want to learn may suffer. They will have to mentally come to terms with these deaths that occur too frequently and try to cope with studies. For young people, this can be quite difficult,” he said.
While the Ministry of Education's Student Support Services Division is the entity charged with providing counseling and other services to students following such tragedies, Ramdhanie said a combination of individual and group counseling was necessary - not just for the immediate future, but for an extensive period.
Calling for a system to track the impact of student murders and other crimes on the remainder of the student population, Ramdhanie said factors such as how is it affecting academic performance, negative behavioural changes and absenteeism needed to be considered as a result.
He said: “The entire issue of fear of crime kicks in. To what extent are these students fearful of being in school, of having to travel to and from school, to walk along the streets? If such fear of crime is at a certain level, it will negatively affect their performance levels.” He said mechanisms were needed to determine the identification of gang and gun problems in schools.
He asked, “Can students share this information with teachers and/or other personnel safely and confidentially? Do they feel confident in providing such intelligence? Do they cover up for other students involved in gang, gun and drug-related behaviour?”
Ramdhanie shared his professional diagnosis, “There will be the natural tendency for students not to squeal on other students involved in such crimes.”
Questioning what mechanisms schools had devised and whether they were successful, Ramdhanie surmised, “It is difficult for students to provide such information but other forms of intelligence gathering must be instituted.”
He said it could include monitoring social media applications of students, through anonymous reporting, closed-circuit televisions and general security improvements.
Concluding that gun and gang violence posed many negative consequences for students - Ramdhanie said the ripple effect was lower academic achievements as the school authorities will lose valuable teaching time as they expend energy to deal with such issues every time they arise.
Adding that there will be classroom disruptions as the mood of the school will be naturally upset when such an incident occurs, Ramdhanie warned, “It takes time to settle back down to regular class work. Even the various counseling and other sessions takes away from class time.”
He questioned whether systems had been put in place to ensure the curriculum was covered, whether in the form of extended school hours or make-up classes on weekends or during the holidays.
“The affected schools must have appropriate interventions to ensure students are adequately prepared for exams. Are both parents and teachers willing to make these sacrifices? In the end, if nothing is put in place to deal with these innocent children who want to learn, then they suffer.
Examining the effects gun and gang violence was having on teachers, Ramdhanie said, “They too need to be taken care of.”
Pointing out that it was a reality that some teachers were risking their lives if they try to correct students involved in gang and gun crimes, Ramdhanie said it needed to be determined if and what percentage of teachers do try to make an intervention in these types of crimes as opposed to those who do not because of fear.
Alluding to the fact that male and female teachers also react differently, Ramdhanie said the authorities needed to confirm if female teachers were more hands-off than male teachers, and if these crimes were higher or lower according to the gender of teacher and/or principal.
Calling for a comprehensive policy to be put in place to deal with crime and violence in schools and more specifically gun and gang crimes, he said general codes of conduct with rules and punishment were good. However, more appropriate interventions were also needed to detect and treat such offenders as well as direct and indirect victims.
Ramdhanie applauded the recent move by the Ministry of Education to remove troubled students from schools, saying it was a step in the right direction but that an official policy was needed.