"It takes a village to raise a child": psychiatrist
Samoa's only psychiatrist, Seiuliali'i Dr George Tuitama, fears school brawls could get out of hand unless community leaders step in to address the issue.
Seiuliali'i, who is the head of the Mental Health Unit at the National Hospital at Moto'otua, told the Samoa Observer in an interview on Monday that the solution to address school fights should begin at home and community leaders should act.
"If you are a leader and a guardian for any child or especially high-school kids, you have a responsibility to help them. Matai, church deacons and leaders all inclusive," Seiuliali'i said.
"As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. We have to take responsibility for all these kids and continue to work together for their improvement.
"Everyone has a responsibility to help out even if you don't have kids or not really directly connected to any of the kids in fights."
Last Friday afternoon students from the Government-run Leififi college and St Joseph's got into a brawl at the bus depot at the Savalalo market, just three months after a similar scuffle occured. The reason for the fight is still not known.
Seiuliali'i foresees the problem getting worse if the communities do not step in to address the problem.
"These violent behaviors are affecting everyone. I have young kids and I don't want them to grow up and think these street fights are normal," he said.
He emphasised that breaking the cycle of school brawls would mean that everyone, and not just the Police working to reduce it.
"The trend will continue but to break this cycle we need to take responsibility and ask, how each and everyone can help, not just police, parents or kids affected," he said.
Seiuliali'i said the issue of school brawls have been around for some time and that is why there are students who think it is normal behaviour.
However, he said this is far from normal and there are many factors for this behaviour: supervision, education and self-discipline.
The psychiatrist said there was also a mental health aspect of such a situation as well.
"Yes of course it is important to teach and talk about mental health, mainly self-control, anger management and identifying contributing factors, like existing mental problems, stressful lives at home and in communities," Seiuliali'i said.
"Some tend to take it out unproductively like street fights and violent behavior elsewhere.
"We need to know how the situations are at home and the community and this can help us understand but again we cannot generalise as each case is unique and also special."
He said there is also trauma being experienced by students who were not part of the brawl, but are now walking around in fear that they would be attacked.
Tags