Students of the Frederick Smith Secondary School have been told that living their best life will be determined by the choices, actions, and decisions they make today.
Minister in the Office of the Attorney General with Responsibility for Crime Prevention, Corey Lane delivered this advice on Thursday during the launch of the Tyrese Caesar Foundation’s Anti-Violence Peace Programme at the St James school, as he urged students to make the right choices by choosing a life of peace.
“Poverty, depression, living a life of hardship, a life of crime . . . having to duck from the police is based on the decisions that you make – you, not me, not the teachers, not the system; it is based on the decisions that you make now. I guarantee you that if you pull up your socks, listen to your teachers, do your homework, pay attention, go and take a course here and there, pass your exams, [and] apply yourself, you will find yourself on a particular path in life,” he told students.
Lane said he was part of a government that aimed to provide opportunities for its citizens “to travel the world to see what it is out there, to be able to get a job that you can support your family and develop and be empowered”.
He added: “On the other path, . . .people just act the fool all their life and then they find themselves in poverty, and they say ‘man, the system’ . . . and they are blaming everybody but themselves and their choices . . . .
Students listening to the presentation at the launch of the Tyrese Caesar Foundation’s Anti-Violence Peace Programme at their school
“I come today with a message of inspiration. I want you to be inspired to love you. That is how we end gun violence, that is how we end crime, that is how we promote peace – by ensuring that you love yourself and that you compare yourself with yourself. When you look in the mirror … and you don’t love what you see, then we have a problem. Then you will do all manner of things to make yourself look and feel better, and that is how people get themselves into problems trying to get accepted, following the wrong crowd, and doing the wrong thing.”
Lane also urged the students to be proud of their school and be the best ambassadors they can be by getting involved in positive activities and endeavours.
“When you step out in your uniform, in your tie, your epaulettes in your colours, you can be proud to carry the name of the Frederick Secondary School; that you can grow from strength to strength and be the best you and have the best life. That can only be done by the choices and the actions, and the decisions that you make today,” the minister said.
Principal Major Lincoln Springer said he was happy to promote the P.E.A.C.E. Programme at the school.
“This initiative, Less Violence, More Peace, More Hope, came out of a tragedy for a family, for a community, for a nation, for a mother, for a father, . . . and they decided, ‘You know, we are not going to sit down and take it like this. We are going to do something about it.’ Hence we have the Tyrese Caeser Foundation against gun violence and violence generally.
“This violence is mainly plaguing our younger members of society, and they are here this morning to share the ideals of the foundation so that you, the senior students here at Federick Smith, will not get involved in violence [and] will not be the victims or the persons starting the violence.”
The Tyrese Caeser Foundation which is working with the National Peace Programme aims to, among other things, create a safe, supportive school climate for students to learn in, encourage students to take responsibility for their part in maintaining safe school environments, and remind students of the importance of resisting peer pressure to act irresponsibly. (FW)
