Boot camp! Hundreds of disorderly teens given final reprieve
published: Wednesday | July 6, 2005
Robert Lalah, Staff Reporter
THREE HUNDRED troubled teens whose disorderly behaviour has left them on the verge of being kicked out of Corporate Area high schools, have been given one final reprieve - they're being sent off to a 'behaviour modifying' summer camp with a good wish and a message - shape up or ship out!
'Camp Success', which is being run by the
National Youth Service (NYS), will last for three weeks and will involve psychiatrists, psychologists and sociologists working with the troubled youngsters to try and turn them around. If by the end of the programme the youngsters show no sign of improvement, they will be booted out of their high schools.
VIOLENT BEHAVIOUR
The students are between age 13 and 17 and are from 15 Corporate Area high schools. They were identified by the principals of the schools which they attend. Some of the students have exhibited violent behaviour at their high schools while others are described as 'disruptive'.
Reverend Adinhir Jones, executive director of the NYS, told The Gleaner yesterday that the need for such an intervention arose from the increasing disorder which is slowly becoming prevalent in the nation's schools.
"We are concerned that our schools are becoming a conduit for violence. We are increasingly getting reports of schools where students are being faced with extortion from other students. We hear things like students having to pay to use the bathroom and so on," he said.
The camp will be split into two phases. The first will run from July 16 to August 5 and will be held at Holmwood Technical in Manchester. The second phase will run from August 8-26 at Oberlin High School, west rural St. Andrew.
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