Senator Monteith Calls for an end to Glorification of Violence

State Minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture, Senator Noel Monteith has called for an end to the glorification of violence through all types of media.
“Our children through these various media – cable television, the computer and video games – have become desensitised to the plethora of violent acts explicitly shown through these media,” he said.
Making his contribution to the State of the Nation Debate in the Senate yesterday (February 3), Mr. Monteith said due to their exposure to these images of glorified violence, the young often felt that violence was a normal way of settling differences. “We must ensure that they do not continue to have a steady menu of violence through these media,” he urged.
The State Minister cited the upsurge of violence taking place in the island’s schools as “a spillover from the wider society”.
Senator Monteith expressed the view that the “violence in the wider society is a manifestation of the decadence of social values and attitudes”, and emphasised that the government would “have to work assiduously to re-engineer the culture of mis-channelled aggression and continue our campaign for positive values and attitudes”.
The State Minister stressed that in order to curtail violence in schools, “all have to be involved in this fight and each individual, especially those of us in the public eye, have to make a concerted effort to model positive behaviours”.
He pointed out that his Ministry was in the process of addressing the serious issue of violence in schools, noting that just this week, the Minister of Education, Youth and Culture, Maxine Henry-Wilson, hosted a meeting with schools, the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, the Safe Schools Programme, the private sector, the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce and the Jamaica Constabulary Force. “The meeting was held to continue dialogue that will lead to the expansion of the Safe Schools Programme and the development of a national strategy to isolate and eliminate the factors contributing to violence in schools,” he said.
Senator Monteith said suggestions put forward at the meeting included the establishment of safe zones around schools, the introduction of surveillance cameras, leadership capacity building in schools, and engaging the communities where schools are located, more active roles in maintaining safety in the institutions.