Change culture of violence, urges Blaine

Betty Ann Blaine, children's advocate and founder of Hear the Children's Cry, is urging the nation to unite in changing the 'damaging culture' exhibited by many of the nation's youth.

Blaine's comments relate to the beating of autistic Denham Town High School student Tyree Green by two of his schoolmates last Wednesday.

"It was very alarming and hard to watch, because it is so cruel and heart-wrenching. We have been seeing more and more of them and they go viral, and I don't know if the general public is taking this as a part of entertainment," she noted with concern.

"We have to come together and decide how we are going to change this culture among our youths. We have to train up the parents as well, as there are lots of teenage and young parents; they need intervention, too, and not just the children," Blaine reasoned.

Green, who was repeatedly kicked and slapped by the boys, after they had instructed him to kneel on the floor, currently walks with a limp because of the beating, and admitted being in pain following the brutal attack.

The two boys who inflicted the blows were arrested by the Kingston West police and each charged with assault occasioning bodily harm.

Blaine told THE WEEKEND STAR that even as she watched the video in a horrified and disheartened state, she was not surprised, as the youth are generally fed a steady diet of violence.

"Our children and teenagers are fed on a steady diet of violence virtually from birth, and as they grow up it gets worse. Violence is glorified in the media, social media and their surroundings; and children who are accustomed to violence in that way will be violent," she theorised. "It doesn't fall out of the sky, and is a developmental process that starts in early childhood.

"Jamaica is a very violent society," Blaine stated.

Having said that, Blaine made it clear that she was not bashing the parents of the Denham Town High School boys who inflicted the beating, as she does not know about their parenting and households in which they were brought up.

Also, as Green is autistic, Blaine said more education is needed about caring for persons with disabilities.

"I am not broad-brushing our communities because in reality, there are households where the children are being raised properly, despite the disparities in their lives. But there are other households where children are born in the culture of violence," she underlined.

"We hardly have any respect in Jamaica for persons with disabilities, as we still think it's a joke. There are still people who laugh and tease them, and that's a problem, as there is hardly any compassion for people like that," Blaine said.

"I used to work in a lot of the communities downtown and I would see children stoning the dogs, and it was a regular practice. It was something we would try to curb, because a child who will be cruel to an animal is going to be cruel to a human being," she pointed out.

The answer to curbing violence among youth, Blaine argued, is instilling love.

"Most of these children want love, so we have to find a way to bring back love into the homes, communities and society," she said. "The violence we see in the schools is geography, as they just move from the homes or communities into the school. We have to find a way to curb this."