Antiguan school children benefit from positive disciplinary practices being implemented at school

14-year-old Glenroy Martin is among the more than 200 students attending the T. N. Kirnon School in Antigua and Barbuda who are now benefiting from the new positive disciplinary procedures being implemented at the school.

This is because since September 2008 the Principal and staff have been embracing the child-friendly school concept being advocated for and supported by the UNICEF Office for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean where the primary focus has been on positive behavioral management with an aim of reducing corporal punishment in schools.

Glenroy, whom some teachers have described as a troublesome student, admitted to frequently being in trouble- having had to be sent often to the Principal’s Office for misbehaving and having received lashes with a belt on occasions for his misbehavior.

Behavioural contract replaces corporal punishment

Today however, instead of receiving lashes Glenroy is benefiting from other options. One such option includes establishing a behaviour contract between himself and the teacher.

This is one of the ways teachers at the T. N. Kirnon School now discipline students, since the implementation of the new behavioural colour wheel that can be seen in every classroom as part of the positive approach to discipline.

The behavioural contract is done with students who like Glenroy – often go on the red and yellow sections of the colour wheel. The teacher sits with the students and tries to find out what is the problem and why the student continually goes on red. Then the student and the teacher develop the contract together and determine what will be the punishment for future misbehaviours.

Glenroy, who has had to develop such a behavioural contract with one of his teachers, said that he prefers this system to lashes.

“Lashes wear off.” He said. “And you will do the same thing over and over again,” he added.

According to him, the colour wheel is a good idea because it gives the teacher “other things that they can do when children misbehave. Before “they just use to say stop and nothing would happened.”

Reward System encourages good behaviour

The colour wheel is also complimented by a rewards system which is part of this new positive approach to discipline to help boost students’ self esteem.

For the two weeks that he was on his behavioural contract, Glenroy received certificates for his good behaviour and he admitted that is felt “really good,” especially as it made his Mom “very proud.”

But while he perceives the changes as good, Glenroy also realizes that changing one’s individual behavior is a process and will not happen overnight. He admitted that after two weeks of good behaviour he got into trouble for “answering back a teacher”.

He recognizes as well that for his peers the change will have to happen over time as some of them are still “behaving badly.”

According to him, “in addition to the colour wheel and the other positive approaches being used”, it is also necessary to show his peers “what life is like without education.”

They need to see that they can end up “on the streets or in jail,” he said. “This too will help them to change.”

Our Children and Predators Who Prey Upon Them

By Cordelle Lazare

A Regional Symposium for Key Stakeholders of the Study of Perceptions of, Attitudes to, and Opinions on Child Sexual Abuse in the Eastern Caribbean, was held at the United Nations House, Barbados on the 11^th and 12^th of May, 2009. This study was undertaken by Action for Children, formally known as National Children’s Home (NCH) and the Center for Applied Childhood Studies (University of Huddersfield, UK). The data compiled in the study was taken from six countries: Anguilla, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, and St. Kitts and Nevis. Moreover, the study was a programming initiative of UNICEF, UNIFEM and regional stakeholders and supported by UK’s Department of International Development (DFID).

The symposium objectives were as follows: 1. to consider the findings of the study of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA), 2. to engage stakeholders in formulating recommendations, 3. to explore the synergy between this study, other related research and regional developments on child protection, 4. to provide a forum for sharing views and professional expertise and 5. to develop alliances for social action to address CSA. This study looked at the sad truths which our children face whenever they are preyed upon by adults or their peers who are of superior knowledge than what they hold. The symposium firstly looked at the following questions:

1. Who is a Child? Under the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of a Child (CRC) a person shall hold the status of a child providing that they are under the age of eighteen, no matter the age of consent, which varies in different countries.

2. The study also showed that people classify abuse and use personal discretion to determine what definition fits a particular case. Hence, the issue of Language arose.

3. Gender was a continuing theme of the study, which should that persons where indeed gender biased. However, it was also shown that there is blame which needs to be dished out to both genders.

4. Children and Young People was an emergent theme of the study. It was seen that young people need to be geared to play a role in the development of systems, policies and services to protect themselves.

5. Finally, it was seen that CSA was not on the forefront of our politicians’ agendas.

It was seen that the issue of childhood was very important. In the study many questions dealt with childhood. Many of the questions which were asked in the study received favorable responses, however all participants of the symposium were worried about the people who responded negatively, and those who were undecided, simply because the eventual position of such persons is a toss up. It was also fundamentally noted that the blame game should not be played while the lives of children remain in shambles.  

The study clearly cited the fact that a number of cases were just the phenomenon called Cycle of Abuse. This is where the abuser was also abused as a child and because of the psychological impacts; they turn around being abusers in their adult lives. While most of abusers were men, it was even more disturbing that women also sexually abused children. Cultural issues were also seen as a problem. Participants found the how to change minds which are culturally controlled would be a very difficult task.

Regrettably, CSA is committed most of the times by persons who have close relations with the children. This certainly destroys a child’s view of trust. Numbers of cases are committed in the homes by father, step-father or an even more unstable figure in the home, the mother’s boyfriends. Mother’s are often seen in such cases to be contributors to CSA because they protect the abuser to ensure the financial stability of the home. Such actions solely perpetuate the issue of CSA.

What do we now do? Do we incarcerate abusers with no form of rehabilitation? Or do we ensure that they are rehabilitated and not returned to society unless they have received extensive psychotherapy? What are we to do with abused children? We can surely not continue to sweep the issue under the rug and hope it disappears. They too will need psychotherapy. However, nothing we do will neither restore their childhood innocence nor completely restore their faith in trust

Adolescents to launch regional media network

by Patrick Knight, Communication Specialist, UNICEF Barbados and Eastern Caribbean Office.

 

The old saying advised that children (including teenagers) should be seen and not heard, but a group of adolescents from Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean is out to change that mindset with the formation of an Eastern Caribbean Adolescent Journalists Network.

Young people from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines, supported by facilitators from all of the countries, recently met in Barbados to design a blueprint for the group and decide on a training schedule and work plan ahead of the official launch of the network later this year.

 

Representatives from the Antigua Observer, Barbados Association of Journalists, Caribbean Association of Media Workers, Dominica Environmental Youth Network and Searchlight and Yute Newspapers were present at the initial meeting, fully covering the four countries involved in the pilot of the Eastern Caribbean Adolescent Journalists Network.

 

The British Virgin Islands, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands will soon be brought into the network which is being facilitated by the UNICEF Office for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. The network will feed into the Latin Americana and Caribbean Adolescent Media Network.

 

The network of adolescent communicators is one of the forms of participation that UNICEF and its partners are promoting to make children and adolescents’ voices heard, to put in the public agenda issues affecting them, and to demand compliance of their rights. Through media children and adolescents can express themselves and publicly discuss issues related to their own rights, their aspirations and concerns.

On issues such as child poverty, HIV/AIDS, violence, the environment and education, children and adolescents will be given the skills and tools to speak out through projects using print, video, radio and new media platforms utilising the Internet.

 

Most of the adolescents identified training as the critical component in launching them towards a career in journalism and UNICERF, with the support of national bodies and media houses, are expected to work towards making the training a reality.

 

The specific objectives identified by the group are:

 

• To strengthen the rights of participation for children and adolescents through media.

 

• To promote the exchange of experiences directly affecting members.

 

• To support learning processes of the adolescent participants, transforming communication into a positive experience that transcends barriers and enriches participants emotionally and intellectually.

 

• To share information at the local, sub regional and regional level, influencing public opinion and reinforcing the rights of children with the stories/materials they produce.

 

• To support the dissemination and exchange of adolescents´ participation and best practices and innovations.

 

• Support the participation of the sub regional network in the Regional Intercultural Network for Adolescent Communicators (LACVOV).

 

• To encourage their peers throughout the sub region through the promotion of integral health, prevention of all forms of violence and the use of illicit drugs.