Tendai Franklyn-Brown, Staff Reporter

Janilee Abrikian (right), general manager of PALS, and Deputy Superintendent of Police Patrick Watson (second right), coordinator of the community safety and security branch, St James, look on at SROs (from left) Karie Stewart, David Williams, Khaleto Williams and Shennian Duncan (foreground) at a workshop on Monday. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

A leading civic advocate is lobbying for violence mediation to be formally incorporated into school curricula throughout Jamaica.

Janilee Abrikian, general manager of Peace And Love in Society (PALS), argues that timetabling conflict resolution sessions would help address school indiscipline at the local level, which would have a knock-on effect nationally.

"To address the matter of violence in schools in a systemic way, there has got to be a policy in schools that states that they need to set aside a period for PALS once a week because Jamaica has become a society of cultural violence," said Abrikian, who has been at the helm of the mainly school-centred organisation since 1997.

"To change that you have to teach alternatives to violence," she added.

Importance of the training

Abrikian was speaking Monday at a presentation ceremony at the Council of Voluntary Social Services in Kingston, capping a six-day training workshop for police school resource officers' drawn from across the country.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Patrick Watson, coordinator of community safety and security in St James, told The Gleaner that the training of SROs was critical to the success of the Safe Schools Programme, which has drafted in law enforcement officials to combat student aggression.

"We find the schools have a lot of truancy and undesirable behaviour and this is something teachers cannot cope with," explained Watson.

"Then it is best that the police and the community be asked to step in and address the problems affecting the school."

Anger management strategies were also imparted to the SROs.

Enhanced his capabilities

Watson continued: "We have learned a lot about anger and discipline resolutions, so the traditional way of doing things is gently going away and we are adopting more technical measures to come to grips with the violence in schools."

Jovel Sortie-Thomas, a constable SRO in Kingston, agreed that the training workshops enhanced his capabilities. "Students, like adults, will react based on how they feel and it's how we as police officers deal with them," he said.

"We can't let them feel down or worse than they already are, but cause them to be confident in knowing that the conflict is all right but it is how we solve the problem that's important," he said.

tendai.franklyn-brown@gleanerjm.com