We Are Losing Our Children To Crime
Guest Opinion by Shirley M. Sadler
CRIME IN THE VI MUST STOP, BECAUSE FROM THE STREETS, TO THE JAIL AND GRAVE WE ARE LOSING OUR CHILDREN!
People of the Virgin Islands I greet you today with a heavy heart, and more so as a single parent. As you are aware crime in the Virgin Islands is at a record high and is still climbing. We are losing the battle on crime, and more and more each day we are losing our children, our priceless gems, mainly our sons.
They die violent deaths on the streets, in our neighborhoods, and now even in their homes. Crime has shut down our community, whereas, we law abiding citizens are now living in fear of the unknown. As parents, we are constantly fearful of the well being of our children. There are some, parents who feel they are in no position to do better for they are forced to work two or three jobs outside of the homes in order to provide for their families, especially in these economic hard times. Single family households are even more so affected by this concept because we as single parents have to work even harder to survive.
Parents – my question then to all of us is: at what cost? For we are losing our children – is the long and short of it. Our children are left home alone for hours unsupervised and in time, we do lose control of them. They are, more-or-less, parenting themselves. A sense of authority has no meaning to them. They have little respect for anyone. They fear nothing or no one, and the sad part of it is they are just innocent victims of circumstance, who now makes all of us their victims. We are now held hostage to their violence.
Some, have said this violence is against themselves, so let them kill each other, but more and more that violence now has no boundaries and it’s hitting too close to each of us, making us now potential victims. In the rash of the killings escalating there is not an incident to which most of us is not familiar with the individual or individuals involved. We know them in some capacity or other, for the island is too small for us not too. Therefore, it is now of vital importance for us as a community to come together as one without laying blame to find meaningful solution to declare WAR against this rampant senseless violence in our Community.
We “must” stop blaming the Commissioner of Police and everybody else and blame ourselves… … if we must lay blame. We as parents are the ones who created these monsters; therefore, it’s now up to us to correct this injustice we have bestowed upon our community. WE MUST CLEAN HOUSE.
The solution to this social decay lies within our own homes and the educational process of our children and that includes all of us, even to those of us who, are in fact good parents, for we, as a community have failed in parenting all the children of this community. We “must” return to the days of the VILLAGE. We must bond together, if we are going to be effective. We must love our children enough to fight for them. No more, should the streets, the jail and the grave be their homes.
I personally stand ready to declaring WAR against crime, I say point our children in a “New Direction”, Right Here…. …. Right Now. We “must” hold fast to the concept that it takes a Village to raise a child. We “must” become that “Village”, whereby, we “must” become more involved in the lives of our children. We “must” encourage our youngsters from an early age to be their best. We “must” believe in their potentials, and create visions of rapture so that they can dream the impossible dreams, while being there constantly to guide and direct their paths. We “must” each become our brothers and sisters keeper. We as a community, all of us, are in fact the keepers of our children. Their success or failure is ours. Presently, as a community we are failing them miserable. Parents we must reclaim our children, government cannot do it for us. We must build a strong foundation around them wrapped in education, for education is the hidden key to their success.
Last year at my son’s 9th grade orientation at Charlotte Amalie High School, I was deeply sadden at the fact that 45% of the class of 2011 did not make it to the 10th grade this angrier me, so much so, that I publicly repeated this information over and over. However recently, at my son’s 10th grade orientation this year I can proudly say that 77% of the Class of 2012 was in fact promoted to the 10th grade this year. The Class of 2012 were praised for doing well on their standardize test. The principal said that the Class of 2012 was one of the better 9th grade class in a while. I join in congratulating the Class of 2012. This in itself is a victory won by the students, their parents, and the school, because by each doing their part we were able to work together to make this happened, which now gives us hope for a better tomorrow.
However, I challenge the Class of 2012 to stay focus, work hard, and excel always, for in 2012 I want to see all of you in your caps and gowns. I also challenge the Class of 2013 to do much better than the Class of 2012.
I stand on the premise that our children are teachable, they can learn, but we must bond together, to ensure that they do. We must always be willing to go that extra mile for them. We must develop innovative ways to point our children in a new direction. I strongly believe that Book Bag to Briefcase is the road we should travel to point our children in a “New Direction”. Vocational Skills in all our schools and at all level is a “MUST”. Upon graduation our children should be skilled and certified with some type of a vocational trade. Whereby, they can then enter the work force with a certificate and be a valid asset to their employer. This in the long run will be a preventative measure to reduce crime and the dropout rate in our community, for our children will want to stay in school – they will be motivated.
But this must first start with us as parents doing our part. Parents, we “must” assume our full parental responsibilities in being parents. Parents, we can no longer afford to just be a friend or a good buddy to our children. We as parents must stop blaming the law and hiding behind it and step to the plate and discipline our children when it’s needed. The law does not say we cannot discipline our children, it only say that we cannot abuse them. Parents, let us start fighting crime by stamping it out first in our homes. Parents let us not give the streets, the jail and the grave control of our children. AS PARENTS, LET US DECLARE WAR AGAINST CRIME IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS!
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Sadly, Ms Sadler, we are experiencing our own Jurrasic Park/Lord of the Flies. Both stories are based on the premise that if children/offspring are not given structure,discipline and limitations they revert to wild, uncontrolled creatures. We parents are working so many hours to make ends meet we are not home to raise our children. On the contrary, it is to our benefit to “force ripe” them in to young men and women from youths so we don’t have to feel guilty for the times we leave them alone.
It will be hard to convince our children that hard work is preferable to the”easy money”from criminal acts when they see the real criminals in our society succeed through legal technicalities and so called “connections”.
I beg you though please do not start another “War” against anything. So far none of them have worked “the war on drugs, the war on terrorism.
Let us change the terminology to some thing positive like “For the Love of” or “Because we Care”.
As to Vocational training great but let us consider some of the new generation vocations. Let us go beyond plumber and carpenter. Jewelry is one of the largest business in the VI where is our gemology or craftsman school. Music is a multi-billion dollar industry and a viable vocation on many levels with many different production jobs. Put a recording studio in every high school. You will definitely increase the rate of our boys graduating from high school. Offer vocations that interest this new generation. Open communication with them, include them in the decision making process. This has to be open to all of our youth, not just the top students but the ones acting out.
We must combine our efforts. I will contact you to see how I cqn help.
As a St. Johnian, I frequently ride the ferries between St. John and St. Thomas. I recently noticed that one of the boat companies has taken to playing movie videos during the short twenty minute ride between Cruz Bay and Red Hook. Without exception, at least on my trips, those movies have been filled with extreme violence, guns, shooting and looting. And, it appears that the movies run continuously all throughout the day. There are often very young children on these boats, as well as teenagers going back and forth to school. I remember a time when people shielded their young ones from this type of media violence. When did we stop protecting our young people?
We have all become so immune to the violence on television, at the movies and in our popular music that we no longer seem to consider its impact on our youth. We are weaning our young people on Rambo and the Matrix and then we scratch our heads wondering why they are wantonly shooting each other down in our streets.
We obviously have a huge problem with the proliferation of firearms in our islands, much more so than our neighboring islands. Why is this so? We don’t manufacture guns here, so how are they getting in? And how are they getting into the hands of these young men so easily? We have spent much time criminalizing our young men on the streets that we do not focus on those criminals who are facilitating the easy flow of guns through these islands. Who are they?
This is a community wide problem and, as such, the solution lies with the community. We cannot wait for the parents to start first. We must all start together – parents, teachers, churches, government, social service organizations, non-profits, business community. Everyone can, and must, do their part to solve this crisis.
Shirley stated
“We as parents are the ones who created these monsters; therefore, it’s now up to us to correct this injustice we have bestowed upon our community. WE MUST CLEAN HOUSE.”
Truer words have never been spoken – we all need to stop blaming the schools, the police, the government, etc etc and realize that the responsibility lies squarely with the parents who had them.
Kim Lyon states:
“We must all start together – parents, teachers, churches, government, social service organizations, non-profits, business community”.
I completely disagree. We have plenty of concerned teachers, churches, and more social service organization and non profits and businesses who for years have done way more than their parts to help the community. They can never and will never be effective until parents decide that they are responsible for their offspring and squarely place high value on their child’s education and behavior.
Please stop referring to children as “Monsters”. You brought them into this world as innocent human beings. Do not cast a broad net on all children as “Monsters”. There are a lot of Virgin Islands children that are not into crime and violence.
It is unfair to the children and parents that are working hard each day to make a difference.
If “you” have created a monster deal with your monster and stop grouping all children as monsters to ease “your” pain.
Just an observation intended to serve a good purpose. We have too many problems in this community to cast such a wide net on our children.
Ms. Lyons, you revealed some very troubling information there. Have you reported it to management and, if so, what was their response? I wonder if the PSC has any guidelines that can put a stop to this. That ferry company’s irresponsibility is exactly what pushes people towards a desire to legislate behavior.