KINGSTON, Jamaica – Bad behavior by parents at schools is being condemned by Prime Minister Andrew Holness following a viral video of a disruptive parent who was taken into police custody – and he has promised measures to prevent such situations.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness.Saying that such behaviour will not be tolerated, he admitted that he was “distressed” to see not only the video being circulated online but comments in support of the parent’s actions.
“Something has gone wrong in our society when we can find ways to justify bad behaviour on a school compound,” he lamented.
Holness stressed that schools must be places of good discipline and good behaviour for all who fall under their roofs.
“No parent, no visitor should come on a school compound and behave in a reprehensible way that sends a signal to the entire society that the authority of the school, the authority of the teacher, the authority of the principal and indeed the authority of law enforcement should be disrespected,” he emphasised as he spoke to students and teachers during a visit to a school in Ocho Rios.
“This society, this country, our people must speak with one voice against bad behaviour and indiscipline, especially when it is in our schools.”
Holness added that his government has started to review the security of the island’s schools and once completed, there will be changes to address this type of situation.
“I want all principals, teachers and parents to know that your prime minister and this government does not support or tolerate bad behaviour in our schools at all.
“We have started to review the security of our schools and I expect to get a report from the Commissioner [of Police Kevin Blake] very soon and we will put in place the necessary measures to ensure that no adult comes on to the school compound and behaves in the way that I have seen being circulated and believe that they are going to get away with it,” he said.
Holness insisted that discipline and good behaviour are necessary in society, and the place for those traits to developed is in the schools.
“We must defend the schools as zones of good behavior, peace and discipline. I am very passionate about it because it is an embarrassment to us as a country to see that kind of behavior in our schools. We must speak out against it with one determined voice so anybody else in the society that thought that it was acceptable, it is not, absolutely not,” he urged.
