Bureaucracy in a school’s administration will not facilitate better relationship between students and teachers. It will be an inevitable situation of stored feelings if students find it difficult for their voices to be heard; a problem most students have difficulty with. To this end, I will concur that as Head Boy I have the same difficulty. To have the student’s voice being heard has nothing to do with influencing any administrator’s decision on discipline. It is sad to say, that the only thing students have going for them is their voices and when this is denied, the results will not likely be pretty.
Students will be contented when they know that even if they are wrong the likelihood of justice in the sense of defence, is administrated. They just want to have that feeling that through it all there is that one person who will be there to ratify and analyze the situation. This person is not the Student Counsel President; most times it is the Head Boy who they find more confidence in and is the very person they will more likely share their angry viewpoints with, based on the fact that a Head Boy should have that close-knit relationship with the Student Body he represents. It is more so evident that students, with whatever problems they have, will not relate it to the administration firstly, but probably with another student or that one teacher who they confide mostly in. While it may be good for the student to confide in his peers, it may have its negative and sometime I wonder why it is that students have problems and not share it with the administration and the answer is that “they don’t listen to our viewpoint.” Administrators need to listen to the voices of the student population. Failure to do so will result in more problems that will affect the student - teacher relationship, as well as student - student relationship.
Have anyone stopped and asked the child why did you do that? Or do you know the consequences of such actions? Or in the case of a teachers, who may wrongly make an assumption that it is that student or that group of students who did such lewd actions, did you do it? No, we don’t, at least not anymore. We don’t even try to rationalize the situation and look at the possibility that the student may not be at fault.
I can say that as Head Boy, I preach it to all the classes I have been at Kingston College, that, I will agree that students, most of the time are at fault, but what about the few, who have been accused wrongly, the few who are not able to defend themselves because of an assumption or fear for a person, or the few, who there is strong evidence and testimony that they are not guilty. What about them? Are they not to be given the benefit of the doubt that they could be innocent or will the school’s administration be like Jamaica’s inefficient Justice System, where poor people will never be able to attain justice. This is not the Head Boy/Girl influencing the decision of the Administration; this is the Head Boy/Girl trying to bring to light on the table the views of the students and how the situation looks from their standpoint. Administrators must not allow themselves to cast judgments based on the information given to them from the teachers, but more efficiently cast judgments on a basis, where both parties make their testimony and present their case. That way we will know who is at fault.
However to relate my very sad situation in 2002, when I was suspended in eight grade. I was suspended for writing a note in the back of my book about my Spanish teacher, who to be honest I passionately disliked. She was teaching a topic about “mas…que” the equivalent of “more than.” I made the mistake by writing that Senora Mullings, as she was known, “es mas estupido que un pero” the equivalent of Mrs. Mullings is stupider than a … pero – but, but she went ahead and say it carries the same meaning as perro – dog. Anyhow, this was at the back of my book and I saw it the next day at class and tore the paper out. Apparently my deceitful friend behind saw the paper and brought it to the teacher. Of course she was upset and gave me lines to write just before reporting the matter. She developed a strategy of lies to say that I said she needed glasses to read the lines. I will admit, I am outspoken but I would not tell her that especially if she is a teacher in her youths. I was brought to the office the next day, and without even hearing my side of the story I was suspended. I was asked to give her an apology after the suspension and I refused. Just to show the level of injustice at schools nowadays. Did they ask if I deliberately wrote the note to the teacher, no, my deceitful friend went ahead and told the teacher I sent the note to her by him. Did they ask what pero as against perro means, since we were learning a new construction in Spanish, no! They said “but” in Spanish conveys the same idea as “dog” in Spanish. Did they ask if I told the teacher she needs glasses, no! They took her words for it, even though I proposed to carry my witness. (That was forbidden) Yet still, even after the suspension I grew to hate her even more and I stopped doing her assignments, to the detriment of my own character.
This story I will remember all the days of my life, the injustice in the school system and the level of biasness of always taking the teacher’s views. I must say Mr. /Mrs. /Ms. Administrator, students are not trying to drive the school in disarray, we know we are wrong sometimes but don’t use it against us every time there is a case of indiscipline. We understand the difficulty teachers have in teaching students, but don’t let your frustration on the different incidents involving the teaching staff’s abuse, don’t let the situation at other schools determine the course of action you take when dealing with indiscipline. We all mean each other well; it is just for us to listen to each other, for at the end of the day, you, the administrators, will make the ultimate decision. Students just want their voices to be heard. At least give us the opportunity.
Collective punishment, I may say is necessary at times, but until we are able to identify the real perpetrators then our means of discipline will continue to be flawed and inefficient. Student’s voices and views are currently in the wilderness and if a school operates without students then it is not a school. We face the blunt of problems in the school and for us to tell you them should prove more beneficial than disadvantageous. Children live what they learn, children are our future, treat them well and teach them the way with love in their hearts and they will have love for the world. Give them a chance I say, to express themselves.
