Crisis mode! Education minister and CEO paint grim picture of ESHS
The Elmore Stoutt High School (ESHS) is facing serious challenges, with reports of student violence, drug use, and mental health issues painting a grim picture of the school environment.
Education Minister Sharie deCastro and Chief Education Officer (CEO) Orlandette Crabbe painted a dire picture of the extent of the crisis during a recent appearance on the “Talking Points” radio show, urging the community to rally together for change.
The alarming situation at ESHS includes incidents of students bringing weapons to school and engaging in drug use. “We’re seeing knives with nunchucks on them, fake weapons… the drugs, the paraphernalia,” deCastro stated while stressing the urgent need for a zero-tolerance policy.
Late last week, the school announced a new policy of immediate suspensions for students found with contraband items on school grounds. The announcement came amid reports of increased attacks coming from parents whose children were found with such items. “We have to search everybody… to make sure that we cover everybody,” Crabbe added. “We do random searches. So not every student coming through the gate is searched every single day”.
Minister deCastro further explained that students who normally would not engage in such behaviours are being influenced by peer pressure. “We’re seeing students who wouldn’t ordinarily get involved in these things then starting to engage,” she noted. “It’s not that you could necessarily pinpoint all the students… based on that pressure or that involvement, [they] have started to take on these types of behaviours that we’re trying to eradicate.”
Mental health crisis and behavioural challenges
Both deCastro and Crabbe pointed to mental health issues as a significant factor contributing to disruptive behaviour.
“A lot of our young people are suffering with severe mental health challenges that are causing them to lash out in ways that we see as misbehaviour,” Crabbe explained. She emphasised that the mental health crisis among students is partly due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
To address this, the Ministry of Education initiated a psychoeducational assessment programme. “We had all of them go and do a psycho-educational assessment… because the behaviours are pervasive, they’re persistent, their logic and reasoning does not align with their chronological age,” Crabbe said while underscoring the complex nature of the behavioural challenges faced at the high school.
Parental involvement and community support
The education leaders called for greater parental and community involvement to address the deep-rooted issues affecting students.
“We need the support of these agencies to assist in the remediation of these young people,” deCastro urged. She also called on parents to engage more actively with their children’s education, stressing, “If you have to check your child’s bag before they go to school… that’s what you’re going to have to start doing every morning.”
DeCastro and Crabbe also appealed for mentorship and community participation, noting that school resource officers are now stationed at ESHS to improve safety and build positive relationships with students.
“We need more adult presence. Mentors. Talk to the young people. It really helps,” deCastro said, appealing to alumni and community members to volunteer their time.
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That’s when you put kids to do adults work. Hon. Decastro is not ready for the job of education minister. She was not a good teacher to begin with and she has zero management or leadership experience. Rather than taking the time to learn from her more experienced staff like former chief education officer and her current permanent secretary she has been pushing them out to elevate her bestie OC. The crisis is not just at the high school. The crisis is in the entire ministry. It is one big mess!
thats why the one man tell her go sit down….. but she catch feelings one time lolol…. thats wa happen when u put women in power…. HOA had to pause because u want a apology while other pressing matters are there?
Up and down traveling while Rome is burning. Nothing is happening in education whatsoever. This robotics thing she seemed obsessed with taking all the money while the students could hardly read. It’s a shame.
I had faith in you but honestly you are not fit to lead and the voice and energy you had before you got in disappeared as you get in.
Only thing memorable from being in there was taking trips to the Olympics and giving grants to your other half.
I agree with you Sharrie 100%. And what is altering their mental health? The bunch of narcotic drugs that they are smoking or ingesting. Children raising children. These child parents support the children’s behaviour and when they get out of hand, they blame everyone else but themselves. Look how they fight up with the schools when the schools implement rules for the children’s own good. Children now on the streets all hours of the night and morning. Times have changed for the worse.
Unfortunately, it had to come to this. Why not install metal detectors? Some of those children are using other children who you would not suspect to have anything in their bags to smuggle it in for them. Then there are times when they are throwing stuff over the wall.
when i was in school around 2007 they had metal detectors we had to walk through everyday
Most those parents are kids themselves I mean that metaphorically. They refuse to think maturely refuse to give up their teenage ways and frame of thought. Most those kids are ACCIDENTAL kids that most single mothers dealing with because the LAW states they mut. Most have such hate in their hearts for the father they can’t stand the child. The child notices this and reacts accordingly. The lack of fathers present while mixing that with bitter bitch syndrome creates monsters both male and female.
the problems with the school start at home, many of them come from broken homes, no father figures in their homes or parents that have no morals, fix the homes and we fix the schools
On a children’s mental health fact finding mission ,good idea.
When people are incompetent they always blame everyone else! If these people are not up to the task with our education system they should do the honorable thing and resign. You are elected to being forth solutions and to LEAD, not to complain. With all being said here they still sat back and allowed the Technical School to go into ruins. These people never run anything in their lives besides their mouths but we are shocked that they are incapable of completing the simplest tasks. They cannot take constructive criticism and this is the issue. Take a look at the persons holding the top positions in education and you will see why we are f**ked. Being a teacher does not make you a good manager and that’s the problem.
Sharie de Castro is an ABJECT FAILURE as Education Minister. Most people want to sugarcoat things because she is a young female with a college degree and a local last name. This is why we will never move forward as a Territory. The young lady has never managed anything in her life. She was a teacher at ESHS and she ran when things got hard. We continue to make emotional decisions at the polls and then act confused when we see these people in action. Her portfolio should be renamed the ‘PTC Ministry’ – Poems Travel Complain. The BVI deserves everything it gets from a political standpoint because we are nasty minded and everything is emotional as opposed to practical and based on reality.
I’m not in anyway saying that the children are not rude and out of order Neither am I saying that some of the parents aren’t immature and actually enables the negative behavior of their children. But.., as is being suggested by those in charge, other people are at fault too and should also be held accountable for their actions. I speak directly to the way some of the public school teachers speak to the students. The way they frustrate, humiliate, insult , intimidate and belittle them. I urge everyone to take a minute out of your busy schedule and try to understand the terms “cause and effect” and apply it to this situation at ESHS and the other primary schools in the territory. I’m of the opinion though that the causes will be overlooked and only the effects will be highlighted because of the circle of friends that exists within that unit,
due to ‘water issues’ and the students allegedly now learn remotely. Just shut down ESHS for in person students. Teach remotely for the next few years and keep the students off the campus unless invited and escorted by the police while on campus.