‘The nation is becoming de-souled’ - Clergyman pinpoints school fights, sexual lewdness as signs of Jamaica’s decline in discipline

WESTERN BUREAU:

Jamaica is being judged to be an undisciplined State, resulting from years of decline in morality that must be urgently addressed if the nation is to uphold its position as a God-fearing country.

Addressing the National Workers’ Week and Labour Day Thanksgiving Church Service at the St John’s Methodist Church in Montego Bay, St James, on Sunday, Bishop Dr Roy Notice, the chairman of the Jamaica Umbrella Group of Churches, cited several recent reports of school fights and aggressive behaviour among children, along with violence in the wider society, as evidence of Jamaica becoming desensitised to lawless behaviour over time.

“Jamaica needs discipline, because we are battling deep indiscipline in this society. We see it in school fights, a kind of unfathomable aggression among not only children, but on the streets and in our relationships with each other. We see the disrespect shown to teachers, the reckless behaviour on the roads, impatience in traffic, refusal to wait, refusal to yield, refusal to obey laws, unless a man dressed in blue (police officer) is watching,” said Notice.

“Too much of our public space is filled and polluted by vulgarity, lewdness, meanness, selfishness, violence, and messages that pull our young people away from decency. Indiscipline is not just a school problem or a traffic problem; it is a soul problem, and one of the things that we lament is that, if we are not careful, the nation is becoming de-souled, where ‘we nuh feel no way’ about certain things as they unfold in the nation,” Notice added.

Jamaica has been rocked in recent months by reports of violent confrontations among students on school premises, one of the most recent being a series of fights that reportedly took place on the grounds of the St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) on May 6. In one of those clashes, a knife was allegedly brought into play and the police had to get involved, resulting in classes being suspended for the following day.

It is understood that four students of STETHS, between the ages of 13 and 15, have since been charged with assault occasioning bodily harm in relation to the fights at the institution.

Before that incident, 16-year-old Ocho Rios High School student Devonie Shearer died after he was struck in the head with a metal chair during a dispute with a 17-year-old classmate on March 4. The 17-year-old has since been charged with murder in relation to that incident.

Notice also referenced a report that persons living in Jamaica spent nearly $500 million on subscriptions to adult social media platform OnlyFans in 2025, pointing to that report as further evidence of normalised vulgarity that mocks Jamaica’s reputation as a Christian country.

“I was a little taken aback the other day, when in the public space it was reported that Jamaicans spent hundreds of millions of dollars on online adult content subscriptions. Further, there are street events where people come skimpily dressed, gyrating on each other, and they have become a part of the emerging, defining culture,” said Notice.

“It is cause for pause, and we must ask, are our appetites costing us morally, spiritually, and relationally? A nation under God cannot be governed by unholy appetites; we cannot complain in one breath about broken families, and then feed into the desires that we cannot discipline. The Word of the Lord calls us to holy restraint, not bodies ruled by impulse, but a people who use their gifts and their bodies to honour Almighty God,” Notice said.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com