By Cecelia Campbell Livingston
The age-old problem of students inappropriate behaviour on buses continues to rear its ugly head.
Howard Montaque, a single father and police officer for many years, highlighted the issue during the Freedom Come Rain’s inaugural Freedom Talk. He said it is still a sore point and one that is giving the police a headache.
He recounted that about two months ago he stopped a coaster bus, and when the door was opened by the conductor, he could not step up on the bus step.
“I instructed the driver to take the bus by the station, and I’m not exaggerating, but I am sure at least 60 to 70 students came off that bus. When I looked through the window of that bus, because the bus was heavily tinted and air conditioned, there were students sitting in other students laps. Girls, boys, both sexes were on the bus, and you don’t have to dig too deeply into that, but you can just imagine what was happening,” he stressed.
Montaque shared that parents had to be called in for some of the students.
Pondering on what can be done to curb these types of activities, he noted that it is outside the normal thinking of how a student should operate.
“When these things happen, like human trafficking, etc., does this put a strain on the already strained system and resources of the constabulary? He quizzed, pointing out that he welcomes suggestions to curb these types of behaviours. He asserted that it is unacceptable for schools to be dismissed by 2:30 and students are sitting on the road from 6 to 7 p.m.
The solution for guidance councillor Tracy Ann Taffe-Thompson is to get to the real root of the problem. She pointed out that the students are on buses like these because of a lack of supervision. Teenagers, she observes, want to do whatever their emotions and feelings lead them to do.
Stressing that rules are there to protect children from themselves, she opined that if parents are not at home to enforce them, then they are going to be anywhere and everywhere, and where they tend to want to be is at places that value them and with people that value them.
“So we have to really focus on providing some of these basic needs of students—teenagers especially. They have to feel respect for themselves, so don’t be surprised if there are some students who come off some of these buses and avoid some of those buses. Why? Because they have been brought up to shun the very appearance of evil. As soon as they see some people coming, they are going the next way because they know there is nothing good that’s going to come from it,” she stated; adding that band-aid solutions will not work without addressing the root of the issue.