Bending the tree while it is young is a proverb which means that it is much easier to teach, guide, and shape a person’s character or habits during their youth.
Just as a flexible young sapling can be easily trained to grow in a certain direction, early guidance sets the course for adulthood.
Today, this should serve as a warning and a guide for navigating some of the problems that are experienced with our kids here in Grenada and elsewhere.
Over the past five years, an alarming number of violent confrontations among schoolchildren have been captured on social media involving students in Grenada that have sparked national concern.
Circulating videos on platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook showed intense physical fights, which often gained traction because bystanders recorded and shared them online rather than reporting the incidents.
Viral videos showing secondary school students engaging in fistfights in public spaces, local bus terminals, and classrooms are the most common examples.
There have been videos showing students in institutional uniforms gathering at major transit hubs to engage in group fights or one-on-one altercations after school hours.
Additionally, there have been several viral social media videos documenting community members or adults stepping into the frame to break up violent student melees, sometimes facing aggression themselves.
In 2021, there was a video on social media that revealed a fight between two adults, one armed with a cutlass, and a young boy who saw it fit to part the fight.
Recently, another troubling video surfaced showing students from a prestigious secondary school in Grenada wearing their uniforms engaging in a fight with cutlasses at the Tanteen playing field in St. George’s.
The footage showed other students standing around cheering them on as the altercation occurred. The circulation of the video on social media prompted widespread condemnation from parents, educators, and the community.
Local investigative reports from outlets like The New Today and NOW Grenada have highlighted an influx of uniform-clad secondary students participating in organised gambling rings. In some cases, schoolboys were utilizing the Tanteen Lawn Tennis Court and surrounding educational vicinities in St. George’s to place illegal wagers.
There is also a report of parents and family members visiting the campuses of a school to confront or assault teachers. These altercations stemmed from reported or alleged physical discipline or disputes between teachers and students.
Family members associated with a student entered the school compound creating chaos, with reports stating they specifically went to beat a teacher, who was fortunately not present on the grounds.
There was a reported incident that three men from Jean Anglais, St. George were arrested and charged with trespass and disorderly behaviour after grabbing a male teacher by the neck in the principal’s office. The altercation reportedly escalated from a dispute involving a female student.
This is clearly a reflection of what is happening in the wider society, therefore the notion of dealing with ill-discipline in schools and violence in schools must be paramount.
Schools should implement measures; however, parental responsibility remains central. The curbing of this behaviour must start at the home with the parents taking responsibility for the actions of their children.
Measures should be put in place making them responsible for the actions of their underage children. Some parents do not want their children to be punished when they contravene the rules of the school but instead seek to put the teacher “under heavy manners.”
When I was a kid, a student would be suspended from school for continuously breaking school rules. What is troubling is that most of these schools have security guards and school counselors.
Parents should be held accountable. Laws must be enforced against adults who enter the school compound to beat teachers. Their actions fuel indiscipline and embolden destructive behaviour. Without serious enforcement of existing laws, schools will remain vulnerable.
Embedding conflict resolution into the curriculum should be the first step. Stepping into a classroom where the first poster on the wall is not an exam timetable but advice on how to mediate a disagreement, where, instead of suspension being the automatic response to a fight, students can sit in restorative circles to discuss what happened and repair the harm.
The classroom does not exist in isolation, however. Children carry lessons learned at home into their neighbourhoods, making it vital to partner with parents, civil society groups and local law enforcement, to reinforce positive behaviours.
A programme launched under one administration is quietly shelved when a new party takes office, regardless of effectiveness. For peace-building in schools to last, it must be anchored in policy, law, and broad social consensus.
As a final resort, school leadership must use its “rod” (authority, security personnel, clear behavioural codes) to fiercely protect students and staff from physical violence.
Severe violent actions must face swift, predictable disciplinary consequences (like suspensions or alternative placements) to restore safety to the school environment.
Do not spare the rod and spoil the child, i.e., if parents or authority figures refrain from administering physical discipline (the “rod”), they will fail to correct bad behaviour and ultimately ruin the child’s character.
In conclusion, the crisis of indiscipline among some students in Grenada reflects deeper social and systemic challenges. Solving it will require the cooperation of educators, parents, policymakers, and communities.
We must act urgently to protect our teachers, support our students, and restore the safe, respectful learning spaces that every child deserves.
If we fail to address these issues now, we risk allowing an entire generation to fall through the cracks. The time for meaningful reform is now. Time to bend the tree while it’s young.
Simeon Collins is a former Director of the Grenada Bureau of Standards and first Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA), a CARICOM Institution