By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A SCHOOL principal in Grand Bahama believes that social media is fuelling an increase of violence and conflicts among students who are committing serious crimes, such as assaults against their peers.

Keith Barr, principal at St Georges High School, indicated that students are going on social media and bullying each other, and sending or texting harassing and threatening messages that can result in conflicts on and off the school campus.

"Social media, we have to get a handle on it, and how our kids are dealing with information because they are not doing very well; It is unsupervised, unrestricted, and they are saying whatever they want to say," he said.

The recent murder of 16-year-old Joshua Davis, who was allegedly stabbed to death by a fellow student, is an example of how student conflict can result in the loss of life.

Davis and the 17-year-old male student who allegedly stabbed him, attended the same Technical school in Hawksbill.

Mr Barr noted that Davis had also attended St George’s for a short time before being transferred to the Technical school.

"He was here up until close to the end of September when school started. He was only here for a few weeks and was transferred," he recalled.

The school principal said that although Davis was not a student at St George’s at the time of his death, it is still a tragedy for them.

"Anybody that comes our way and that we had contact with, and played a part in their education, it is a tragic loss and this is still a tragedy for us. Our hearts go out to his family," Mr Barr said. "He was 16 and he probably would have been going in the 11th grade."

"The incident happened around 1am in the morning on a weekend – there is so much responsibility to go around," said Mr Barr.

He then noted that there was an assault last Thursday involving two female students in 10th grade at St George’s. The incident occurred off campus, he said.

According to a video posted on social media, one student is seen throwing a cup of water on another student and then punching the student. It turned into a big brawl on the streets as other students watched the two go after each other.

Mr Barr said that both parents came in and the students were reprimanded. He said that the reason for the fight was as a result of information posted on social media.

"I advised the mother of the child who was assaulted to go to police and file a report. She did that, and...they (the Police) discouraged her because they feel the schools should deal with these things, and that is one of the biggest problems.

"These are violent acts outside of school, and unless students who are young adolescents realise that there are legal consequence that can have long term ramifications; they have to understand the severity of it."

Mr Barr stated that schools are very limited in terms of what they can do.

"We can suspend and all that stuff, but you need the police to do their jobs – these are adult behaviors," he explained.

The principal said that the entire community has a responsibility in terms of our children.

"The police have to do their jobs, parents have to do their jobs, and we have to set up programmes and have counselling sessions in place in the school system. So, it is a community thing, and ZNS has to be on board because it is a medium paid for by taxpayers and there are very few student-orientated programmes," said Mr Barr.

"If you want to put anything related to schools, you have to pay for it – that's ridiculous."

Mr Barr stressed that a campaign has to be forged by people who are willing and serious about stopping conflicts and violence among students and young people.

"No one is willing to do that – people will talk, but it has to be a concerted effort by the Ministry of Education, the Police, the schools, and parents because you are talking about our children, and I get passionate when it comes to that."

Mr Barr believes that there needs to be more police visibility at the schools, not just on the first day or the opening of school.

"At beginning of the school (year) when school opens you see the police in khakis taking pictures and walking around, but throughout the year you barely get them – every once in a while they show up," he said.

"You have police on campus, but that is not enough," Mr Barr said.

He noted that other jurisdictions, especially in the US, understand the importance of police presence at school campuses.

"Why we ain't getting it? I don't want to bash the police, but they can take one or two hours out of the day just be here and walk around and be visible. There is very little we can do once they (students) walk out those gates and walk down the streets even though they are wearing school uniform," he said.