Mel Cooke, STAR Writer


Rollington Town Primary signed on to the PALS programme in 1997, current principal (and then teacher) Dr Margaret Bailey telling THE STAR, "At the time, we were very enthusiastic about the programme, as we had disciplinary problems. PALS came to our rescue in addressing the disciplinary problems."

Bailey says that, in large part, the violence at Rollington Town Primary was a spin-off of what was happening in the community. And the programme did filter out to the community, as had been hoped. Bailey says, "The children went home and sang the song and talked about Perky Parrot." She added: "We tried to get the parents involved. We held numerous workshops. We trained them in how to resolve conflict with their partners and in the community; also, the things they say in front of their children to incite violence, as well as what they say to the students to damage their self-esteem."

"In the wider community, it had the effect we wanted," Bailey said.

Rollington Town community co-ordinator, Ronnie Wilmot, has seen that effect from outside the school, as 14 persons from Rollington Town and Norman Gardens completed the Super-PALS programme, 10 evening sessions from August to November 1998. He points out that some of the participants, many of whom were heavily involved in community activities, have gone on to other levels of community involvement. So Fabian McGowan is now councillor of the Springfield division in the Kingston and St Andrew Corpo-ration, Kirk Brown is involved in the police youth club, and Alfred Palmer is into community work.

Volatile Communities

"It was a programme that was proactive, not reactive," Wilmot said. He described a situation where Rollington Town was changing, with fewer resident homeowners and more tenants, as well as the community being bordered by volatile communities whose residents often met on the social hub of Giltress Street and had disputes which escalated.

There was also the factor of an impending election, the 2002 poll which returned the People's National Party to power.

"It came at a time when the community was changing," Wilmot said, pointing out that "20 years ago, we would not have needed PALS."

Wilmot uses a wonderful ana-logy in assessing the SuperPALS effect on Rollington Town, many of the participants involved in sports and on the spot when disputes were just brewing. "It is like somebody is keeping themselves healthy. They are taking vitamins and minerals. The fact that they did not get sick, you can't say it is because of the vitamins and minerals," he said.

"Just as the programme had a marked effect on the teachers and students (of Rollington Town Primary), it had a marked effect on the participants who took it back to the community."

Resolve Disputes

Fabian McGowan says that the PALS approach of thinking before acting, which changed his personal approach as well, has stayed with him.

"Ignorance is always a killer. If you are brought up not knowing how to resolve disputes, you do what you know. You either fight it out - or whatever happens," he said. "It actually gave us another view, out-of-the-box thinking. You seek dialogue."

The change was very personal as well, McGowan saying that he was more "of the hothead type, to put it in layman's terms".

In his current capacity as councillor, McGowan has got word of disputes and intervened, the lessons he learnt over a decade ago coming into play.

"Once you have gone through it (the PALS training), it is hard to lose it. It is not a matter of going back. It has always been there with me and those are the skills that come out naturally," McGowan said.

After an extended break, during which the administration still kept the programme and its principles going, PALS is officially back at Rollington Town Primary, one of 90 primary and junior high institutions as well as 15 high schools, islandwide in which the programme is being implemented during the first phase of a five-year memorandum of understanding between PALS and the Ministry of Education.

Bailey says this time around, it is not any less effective. And she intends to keep it in place permanently. "I am currently doing a conflict resolution action plan, so it can be sustained," she said.

Mel Cooke, Star Writer


Damoy Eastman first saw the Penwood High School handbook last year as a fourth former when the comprehensive guide to conduct, based on a template provided by Peace and Love in Society (PALS), was introduced at the St Andrew school. Then, he was struck by what he was just learning about his school.

That included how it got its name, how old it is and the names of some of the outstanding graduates.

Disciplinary Matter

A year later, the Students' Council president is struck by just how much many of Penwood's students do not know about what is in the handbook, which is required reading and is utilised in many a disciplinary matter.

Still, he says, it has made a difference and Eastman says as a peer counsellor, he utilises the handbook in his one-on-one sessions with his colleagues. And the teaching student, who at times finds himself facing a classroom of students, tells The WEEKeND STAR that he speaks about the handbook when delivering social studies and guidance lessons.

"They abide by some of the rules, but not others," he said.

Penwood is one of several high schools, Donald Quarrie High on the other side of the city also among them, to have utilised the PALS handbook templates to develop their own document. PALS General Manager, Janilee Abrikian, told The WEEKeND STAR that "PALS decided to develop a handbook upon recognising that many schools did not have one, or what they had was inadequate, such as a two-pager. Where those two-pagers did exist, they were also very old and parents and students did not have a copy".

Penwood's principal, Austin Burrell, told The WEEKeND STAR that parents and students are required to read the institution's 42-page handbook thoroughly and sign a declaration that they have done so. The declaration reads in part: "I declare my unreserved willingness to abide by the rules and regulations governing Penwood High School as they are outlined in the handbook."

Donald Quarrie's principal, Reford Hines, confirms that while the school rules were written down previously, using the PALS template provided the school with a comprehensive code of conduct. Hines adds that the template was further localised with pictures, the school's vision and mission statements, the school creed, and information regarding the school's valedictory service and awards ceremony being included. And at Donald Quarrie High School, the rules are laid out not only for students, but teachers as well.

Eastman does not swallow the reasons students give for not reading the Penwood handbook, among them that it is too big to carry around ("It is the right size for a book," he says). Among the rules which Eastman sees as being especially relevant to Penwood are those on smoking and carrying weapons to school. He said just on Wednesday the handbook was referred to in an incident involving a female student.

And there are items in the Penwood handbook that he would like to see much more attention paid to, chief among them the security policy.


Policies

Although it is clearly stated that the handbook cannot cover every single incident which may arise over an academic year, the templates are detailed and comprehensive. The format includes an introductory section, followed by general information. The policies, regulations and procedures section addresses issues such as cellphone use, sexual conduct, vandalism, health safety and security, visitors and substance abuse. Stakeholder roles - parents, staff, the dean of discipline, the principal - are defined.

The student conduct code and discipline plan include disciplinary action levels and disciplinary options. Outlined is a range of preventive strategies in which the student can be engaged. Where these are not effective, and the student needs additional help with self-management, other measures, such as contracts, special assignments and teacher-parent conferences are suggested. Measures for dealing with more serious and recurring inappropriate student behaviours are also included.

Damoy Eastman, who had a copy of the Penwood High handbook close to hand when he spoke to The WEEKeND STAR yesterday, is happy with its content.

"I think the handbook is quite fine as it is. It has all the relevant details," Eastman said.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Cliché, but in the manner of many such pithy, overused statements, true. However, the authorities' obligation to lay out the rules clearly is the other, often unstated, side of the discipline equation.


Peace and Love in Society (PALS) has been working at balancing responsibility with knowledge of the rules in the primary- and high-school systems, developing handbooks that clearly outline a code of conduct for the members of the school's community. So far, several high schools have utilised the PALS handbook templates.

PALS general manager, Janilee Abrikian, told The Gleaner "PALS decided to develop a handbook upon recognising that many schools did not have one, or what they had was inadequate, such as a two-pager. Where those two-pagers did exist, they were also very old and parents and students did not have a copy".

Donald Quarrie's principal, Reford Hines, confirmed that while the school rules were written down previously, using the PALS template provided the school with a comprehensive code of conduct. Hines added that the template was further localised with pictures, the school's vision and mission statements, the school creed, and information regarding the school's valedictory service and awards ceremony being include. And at Donald Quarrie High School, the rules are laid out not only for students, but teachers as well.

While Donald Quarrie introduced its handbook at the start of the current school year, Penwood High is using its PALS template-based handbook for the second academic year. Penwood's principal, Austin Burrell, told The Gleaner that parents and students were required to read the institution's 42-page handbook thoroughly and sign a declaration that they have done so. The declaration reads in part: "I declare my unreserved willingness to abide by the rules and regulations governing the Penwood High School as they are outlined in the handbook."

The handbook template is available to all schools and most of the institutions on the current PALS-Ministry of Education project have shown an active interest in using it to deve-lop their handbooks, or to improve current editions. The PALS programme is being implemented in 90 primary and junior high as well as 15 high schools islandwide in the first phase of a five-year memorandum of understanding between PALS and the Ministry of Education.

The primary and high-school templates differ in some respects, the latter developed first. Abrikian's draft, based on extensive research online as well as existing handbooks in Jamaica, was redefined and 'Jamaicanised' in collaboration with two high-school principals.

Slightly different approach


Abrikian said, "While there is an overlap of issues addressed, the formats of the books are different. Different aspects of school life are addressed, given the different age groups. For example, some time is spent on addressing how parents can help their children with homework in the primary school handbook. This is not addressed in the high school handbook. We also took a slightly different approach to the code of conduct, but this is more of an improvement over the high school handbook."

Although it is clearly stated that the handbook cannot cover every single incident which will arise over an academic year, the templates are detailed and comprehensive. The format includes an introductory section, followed by general information. The policies, regulations and procedures section addresses issues such as cellphone use, sexual conduct, vandalism, health safety and security, visitors and substance abuse. Stakeholder roles - parents, staff, the dean of discipline, the principal - are defined. The student conduct code and discipline plan includes disciplinary action levels and disciplinary options. Outlined is a range of preventive strategies in which the student can be engaged. Where these are not effective, and the student needs additional help with self-management, other measures, such as contracts, special assignments and teacher-parent conferences are suggested. Measures for dealing with more serious and recurring inappropriate student behaviours are also included.

Change for the better

Hines said, at Donald Quarrie, distribution of the handbook had not been going as well as projected as the handbook is available at a cost to families. Starting next year, though, a handbook will be included in the school package of every incoming student. Burrell said students and parents were satisfied with the handbook, which has contributed to a change for the better.

"It's not just the handbook, but also other measures that have been put in place. We have seen an improvement in discipline at the school," Burrell said. Those measures are also largely a result of the PALS programme. He added that, at Penwood, with PALS' guidance, they are also developing a handbook for staff.

As time goes by and the schools' environments change, their handbooks will be a work in progress, with adjustments made as required. Still, it is projected that the PALS-template-based handbooks will serve the schools' needs for a long time.

"We will go back to press in the school year 2011-2012," Hines said.

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer



Peace and Love in Society trainer Yorkali Walters with Calabar High School lower sixth-form students during a recent training session at the Red Hills Road, St Andrew school. - photo by Mel Cooke

Calabar vice-principal Canute Fagan had encountered the Peace and Love in Society (PALS) programme before it was introduced into the Red Hills Road, St Andrew school at the start of the current academic year.

"There is hardly a meeting I have gone to with the other stakeholders that PALS has not been a part of," the 15-year veteran Calabar teacher - plus seven years as a student - told The Gleaner.

These stakeholder meetings have included the National Transformation Programme and the Safe Schools Programme.

"They are really in touch with what is happening," Fagan said.

At one stage, though, he had thought that the programme was just for the primary level of the education system, what with students reciting the motto and the chirpy PALS mascot. However, in June, "I was invited to one of their meetings and when I heard what the offerings were I was really excited."

Exciting components

Among the PALS programme components that have excited him are classroom management, crisis management and conflict resolution for student leaders.

Fagan readily states that Calabar has a conflict-resolution issue - which is common to many schools. "Once you have more than one party interacting, you will have it," Fagan said, identifying a number of conflict permutations involving students, teachers and parents.

"This can destabilise the school, to a large extent," he said.

The Gleaner was allowed to see the potential destabilisation in one incident, where a cellphone dispute from the tail-end of the last academic year had resulted in threats and a parent being cursed over the telephone. The police were called in, one lawman wanting the students involved in the dispute suspended and sent to the station for the matter to be dealt with, but Fagan flat out rejected that avenue.

When The Gleaner visited Calabar on Monday morning, the lower sixth-formers in training sessions with PALS trainers, Yorkali Walters and David Pearson, were not in a dispute with anyone - at the moment. Separated into two groups and the training exercises running concurrently, they were examining the results of paired interviews, responding to hypothetical conflict scenarios and indicating their position on a number of statements about conflict by their physical position along one side of the room.

'Agree' was at one end and 'disagree' at the other, with 'borderline' in the middle. When Walters said "people should never fight", the 'disagree' side was crowded; it shrank when he threw out "if somebody dis you it is best to pretend you never hear".

Almost all agreed that "the world is divided into winners and losers". He whispered the final question to the young men on differing sides of the opinion line and some shuffling took place, with most clustering on the 'agree' side.

Fagan sees a win-win situation with PALS at Calabar, one of 12 high schools the programme has been introduced to under a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Education. The first phase ends in December.

"I wish we could move at a faster pace," Fagan said, saying that Calabar's timetable had been set over the summer and timetabling peace education for the first formers was posing a problem. Still, he is determined to squeeze it in somewhere.

Immediate effect

While he expects the effect of the PALS programme to be really felt in the medium to long term, Fagan said, "It is hard not to see it happening immediately."

He sees a change in mindset, to an attitude where there is a realisation that the school's culture was developed over time and it can be changed.

Fagan said "people have bought into it" and one no longer hears "a so Calabar stay".

They are now saying "yes, it was developed over time, but we can change it".

In August, all 90 Calabar High staff members participated in a PALS 'Changing The Culture' workshop, done at the request of the school's administration. Among the concepts they were introduced to was what constituted 'toxic elements' in a culture.

"Once you start to change the culture and you remove the toxic element, those who come in follow what is there. That is what is happening," Fagan affirmed.

The cellphone at the core of the dispute that lasted through the long summer break was returned the day after the discussion, and that matter has been settled.

Fagan said he did not see PALS' impact on Calabar ending even when the programme stops there officially - whenever that is.

"Once PALS has a foot in any school, even when they pull out, it remains. It is hard for them to leave completely. The programme is sustainable," he told The Gleaner.