PHILIPSBURG--Education Minister Wycliffe Smith said on Wednesday that the principal of a school informed him that some students instigate fights at schools so that they can record it and post it on social media for “likes”.
“For children to be able to be popular on social media they will instigate fights to record them and put them up and look at the number of likes that they get,” Smith said. He was at the time responding to a question about the use and confiscation of mobile devices from students in schools.
Smith said the ministry is currently looking at policies that school boards have submitted and will review these policies. “This will be an area that we will look for a unified approach with our school boards.”
The issue of school fights have made headlines recently after several fights amongst students were posted on social media and resulted in a recent motion being passed in Parliament calling on Smith to draft a “safe school plan” in close cooperation with stakeholders including school boards, teachers, parents, students, law enforcement and other community leaders. The motion says the plan should include “elements” of parental support, positive peer pressure, parental responsibility, school safety plans, school transportation policy, a rehabilitation programme catered to the youth, and public awareness.
Smith had said in an earlier statement that he planned to adhere to the timeline of the motion and noted that a plan of action to combat youth violence will be formulated with the aim of introducing fines and other deterrents to alleviate a lot of the “violent situations” among students.
