Marlon Vickerman, Features Writer

Eleven-year-old Brittany has ultra-bright dreams she is just a sixth grade primary school student in the volatile east Kingston area, she hopes to make them a reality. But, like almost any other Jamaican living in marginalised communities, she fears not living long enough to see the fruition of her dreams, mainly that of pursuing a career in medicine or law.

"I'm from Kingston 2 and I'm actually afraid of living in my community because a lot of people are getting killed," she told a Gleaner Editors' Forum yesterday. Once they killed a 10-year-old boy before his birthday, and I'm 11 years old," Brittany said in a tone that clearly demonstrated that she had a firm grip on the reality that it could have been she in the deceased youngster's place.

They need role models

"My community can be a better one because there are a lot of youngsters living there, but (they) need to be groomed properly, they need good fathers. A lot of the youngsters, especially the boys, get involved in gang wars because they don't have any role models to follow, or they follow in the footsteps of their fathers and smoke, drink and gamble. These are not good fathers," Brittany told the Editors' Forum.

A representative from the Holy Family Primary School, who was present at the forum, believed that the absence of fathers, coupled with the immaturity of parents, contribute to the aggression of the students, particularly the boys at that school.

She noted that of the 1,200 students at the institution, some 120 students from just 10 of the school's 24 classes have reportedly lost their fathers and father figures to violence in the community (as was similar to the case of Devon, an 11-year-old student, who broke out in tears after recalling his grandfather's murder). On top of that, gang wars between neighbouring communities make it difficult to hold dialogue with parents, many of whom are under the age of 20 years for the grade one students, and may not be fully ready to commit themselves to the demands of proper parenting.

Up until break of day

On that note, the St. Aloysius Primary School's representative recalled incidents where students fell asleep in classes because they were up until the break of day at the popular Passa Passa street dance in Tivoli Gardens. In other incidents, some of the students spoke of being left alone while parents go out to Passa Passa or other parties.

At the end of the day, the students, whose addresses span Kingston's ghettos, made one thing clear: they needed parents, they needed fathers. Not just for themselves, but for all the youngsters in their respective communities.