Secondary school principals seek media assistance in anti-crime fight
Posted: 12/11/2009 - 06:51 PM
Author: Aaron Humes
Now more than ever, crime seems to be everybody’s business. The fight against violence in Belize is being fought in all sectors, by all manner of people.
One of the groups in the forefront of the fight is the Belize Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (BAPSS), which has been meeting frequently since the passing of Wesley College student Dylan Ayuso, 14, in September. BAPSS has been busy forming a grand coalition of stakeholders to take the fight against violence to a new level.
Today, there was to have been a meeting with all media houses to enlist their cooperation. However, due to schedule commitments, only three media houses – Kremandala, Plus TV of Belmopan and LOVE FM/Estereo Amor were able to make it, while only five principals – Wesley’s Brenda Armstrong, Ismael Requena of Anglican Cathedral College (ACC), Samuel Sukhnandan of Nazarene High School, Diane Westby of Ladyville Technical High School and host school St. Catherine Academy’s Salome Tillett were present.
While there were not many around the table, the discussion was frank and intense. Armstrong, chairing the meeting on behalf of the delayed Tillett (who is BAPSS’ president), opened by outlining some of the initiatives BAPSS is working on to reduce the crime problem.
Chief among those initiatives is the planning of alternative education – training in non-academic subjects for students whose attention flags in traditional subjects – as well as the revival of sports through rehabilitation of sports fields and basketball courts.
But today, the meeting was dominated by a frank back-and-forth on the role of the news media in highlighting the problem of violence.
Many complain that the television, radio stations and newspapers have adopted, in the words of Armstrong, an “Enquirer”-like approach to crime stories – as much of the gory details, harrowing images, and heartbreaking interviews as possible.
And while it will be difficult to break that cycle, BAPSS is approaching the editors and managers of the various press institutions to request that, for six months, they tone down the negativity and make more of an effort to cover positive events occurring in the community.
Amandala pointed out that access to those events is important, and the principals promised to assist where they can in those endeavors.
In the case of the radio stations, more needs to be done to address the often shocking lyrics in rap, hip hop and dancehall music played on primetime radio, said Sukhnandan, as his students are often taken in by the “high life” promised them by that type of music.
“Every morning, the buzz on campus is who got killed by this one, who get ‘juk’, who went to jail,” Westby told us. “It’s almost a badge of honor to hear your name on the news associated with crime.”
Armstrong wants readers to know that each of us needs to take an honest look at ourselves and ask, in relation to the violence situation, “What am I doing? How can I help?”
The proposal is still in the working stage, and a meeting next Tuesday at the SCA compound will once again address the issue.
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