Flogging in schools

THE EDITOR, Madam:

PLEASE PERMIT me the opportunity to echo the thoughts of Yvonne McCalla Sobers in her letter to the Editor on redefining the human being in Jamaica and to add to that we must also redefine the status of children. Children are people too and they deserved to be called human beings.

I return once again to the subject of beating children in schools which continues to exist as a holdover from the days of slavery which had religious support. Well "slavery" is gone and no one is calling for its return and corporal punishment is still here with religious support.

The first and foremost objective for the Jamaica All Age School Project should be the abolition of corporal punishment in schools, where a great deal of flogging and caning goes on. The second objective should be to insist on mandatory reporting of all incidents of corporal punishment with students name, date, time, the administrator of the punishment, the witness, and any related injuries.

As we witness the deteriorating condition of our society, our only hope is in the children. These are the people who will be in charge of us. If we treat them as animals, they will do the same to us.

I am, etc.,

A.M. Tonsingh Ansari, Email:Stop1998@hotmail.com, PO Box 111302, Nashville, Tn, USA,Via Go-Jamaica

Back to Letters