‘They are merchants of death’
Amid tension from bloodbath, training centre appeals for support to show wayward youth a brighter future
Published:Tuesday | June 21, 2022 | 12:11 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
Still on edge a week after the ear-splitting sounds of gunfire in a deadly daylight attack shattered the peace in Spanish Town last Tuesday, even the sound of a motorbike driving by is enough to strike fear into traumatised people in the Old Capital.
Leroy Anderson, principal of the Phillippo Baptist Skills Training Centre at the corner of Cumberland Road and William Street in the St Catherine capital, admitted to The Gleaner that he is among those still shaken. The psychological turmoil is so great that even when he is home in his relatively peaceful Portmore community – miles away from the epicentre of the latest scenes of violence – he is startled by any sudden loud noise.
“Sometimes we use the word trauma, but I tell you, we underestimate it,” Anderson said, noting that the ordeal has left him with a troubling spiritual sensation. “Because when I heard the gunshots ring out this close and you see people racing along ... and you see a dead body, you have to call out to God.”
Motorbikes passing by his gate with their “Pop! Pop!” constantly reminds him of the fatal attack claiming three lives last Tuesday.
As a sense of dread blanketed Spanish Town in the wake of the incident, the skills training centre closed its doors for three days last week and shifted classes to the virtual space as staff and trainees remain panicked.
“It was sudden [and] unexpected. We were in our comfort zone doing what we do best, and then suddenly, it was absolute mayhem,” Anderson recalled.
“Based on the magnitude of the shooting and the outcome of what we saw then, we knew that we would have never been safe to open the next day,” he said, adding that the car wash where one of three men were killed was just a short distance away from the school.
Several trainees left their bags and other personal items at the school as they believed it would have been to cumbersome to take luggage into crowds of people desperately trying to find public transportation to flee the space.
Practical examinations
Despite WhatsApp messages and emails sent to students alerting them that classes would resume on location on Monday, days after a state of emergency was declared in the parish, there was a low turnout.
Only three of 16 students showed up for the housekeeping class yesterday, for example.
Anderson said that the decision to return to face-to-face instruction was made for students to engage in practical examinations for the commercial food preparation as the time spent online last week was used to cover theoretical elements.
Fearful of being trapped in the space for too long, students began arriving for practicals earlier than normal in hopes of returning home early and get off the still-tense streets.
“Normally, what they would’ve done this morning would have taken more hours and sometimes we are here 3, 4 o’clock, but I can guarantee you, we are going to be marking in the next hour,” Anderson told The Gleaner at noon.
“We are proactive, utilising our time skilfully, and we are weathering the storm,” he added, noting that there is still some anxiety and scepticism among the students.
The 30-year-old Phillippo Baptist Skills Training Centre, which provides NCTVET Level Two accreditations in commercial food preparation and housekeeping to persons 17 years and older, has remained a viable option for keeping young men off the streets.
Administrators are pleading for more funding to be invested in institutions like this centre to allow them to expand their reach and play a role in channelling the youth towards a brighter future and away from a life of crime.
“We are saving some purses and handbags by training them because when they are gainfully employed, they don’t look at anybody handbag or purse,” said a housekeeping instructor.
Hurdle to reform efforts
The impact of outlaws on the younger generation poses a hurdle to reform efforts, said Anderson.
“When you look at the vulnerability of these youngsters, it’s just for them to pass a corner and a man say, ‘Mi have a iron for you that you can use’ and them gone, you lose them. Right now, we walking through the space here and there are young men, it’s like they are merchants of death,” he said, pained by the recruitment of young men with promising futures.
As such, the centre is trying to engage young men to make better for themselves and their families the legal way.
“There is an urgent need for a consciousness among every citizen in Jamaica, for us to say our country is in trouble [and] change attitude and help where we can,” said Yvonne Morris-Walcott, chairman of the training centre.
She added that everyone should be more willing to take social responsibility in assisting displaced individuals in recovering a sense of normality through skill-building activities.
“We are people of faith and when we pray, we say, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.’ God is God and we don’t dictate to God. Him a deal with it,” asserted Anderson, who remains hopeful for a full turnout by the end of the week.