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CRIMINAL gangs are recruiting young people in primary and secondary schools directly into their ranks.
This was disclosed by Eye On Dependency director Garth St Clair during a virtual public inquiry on Monday, with members of the National Security Joint Select Committee (JSC) on organised criminal gangs.
The disclosure and subsequent debate on the issue among some JSC members caused committee chairman Fitzgerald Hinds to state: "I think we must begin by understanding all of us as professionals, all of us as operators, all of us as leaders, all of us as seniors...whatever, we all have a responsibility in this." He declared that no one is blameless in this matter. "I spare none."
After St Clair told JSC members about competition for drug sales in different districts, he said criminal gangs often see children from single-parent homes as targets for recruitment.
"Some of these youngsters who are going to school, some of them get recruited even at school level. We got parents who called us about children in primary school and secondary school." He explained, "What happens is that some of them cannot afford a lot of the things that they see some of their friends have, and they do know where they got it."
He said "community leaders" in certain places "seek out these vulnerable folks and $1,000 looks really attractive to someone who just spent the last $50 to buy some milk." St Clair also said gang leaders give these young people choices to join their gangs.
"Either they have drugs to take to school and sell or you can sit higher up the road and you have this radio and you can tell us what you're seeing and you can be a lookout or you can keep this (drugs) for us."
On young people selling drugs in school, St Clair said this also involved the sale of "the zesser pill." He continued, "There are competitions for that. There is a brand of marijuana that young people are using that is inducing psychosis." St Clair claimed young people with mental health issues are taking these drugs and it worsens their conditions.
He also said "a lot of fight for turf" is caused by gangs trying to sell stronger drugs to outdo their rivals. St Clair added that the covid19 pandemic caused a lot of young people who prefer to sit in the back of the class to drop out of school and "go to the guy running the show on the block."
He observed, "This covid put them in the front row like everybody else. This is what online learning did for them."
Independent Senator Paul Richards said, "Nobody ever doesn't just want to learn. Sometimes the system fails the student." Opposition Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial argued, " We don't seem to have that level of issues in certain schools and its teachers that make the difference." After Lutchmedial cited denominational schools as examples, Richards countered, "Teachers operate in an educational system."
Hinds intervened. "This exists in all schools. I accept that it may be more prevalent in some but it in fact exist in all schools." He disclosed, "One of the prime denominational schools in the city...they will tell you quietly...but they have had issues with drugs...they have had issues with all kinds of anti-social behaviour."
He opined,"There is responsibility for dealing with this problem, all along the chain." Vision on Mission programme consultant Gordon Husbands and Eye on Dependency secretary Natasha Nunez told the JSC that people in both depressed and affluent communities can be lured into gangs. She spoke of a woman who was "beaten by her own mother" and was recruited into a gang.
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