This commentary is not a debate over the presence or absence of school police officers. Instead, it is an urgent appeal to policymakers, educators, and community leaders to center student voices when addressing the growing crisis of school violence. After all, it is students who live with this threat every single day — they understand its costs better than any outside expert. Just a few days ago, I had the privilege of sitting on the judging panel for a public speaking competition hosted by the dedicated English department at St. Vincent Grammar School. Six ambitious young finalists competed in front of their classmates and teachers, all vying for the chance to represent their campus at the national competition scheduled for the next academic year. What struck me most was the depth of their preparation and the raw passion they brought to the core topic of school violence. Every competitor delivered thoughtful, well-researched arguments that held the entire audience’s attention. Collectively, they made one critical point clear: school violence is no longer a rare, distant danger that only affects other communities. It is a frightening daily reality here, one that reveals deep, long-standing erosion in our society’s social, family, and educational structures — and it demands immediate, decisive intervention. The students outlined the many shapes school violence takes, from in-person bullying and physical assaults to verbal intimidation and the growing harm of cyberbullying. Rejecting surface-level solutions that only treat symptoms, they pushed for a root-cause approach, calling on stakeholders to examine the shared responsibility of key institutions: the family unit, schools, faith organizations like the church, and the broader community. It was 18-year-old student Mowani Latham’s address that moved the entire room to tears, striking a chord that no politician, psychologist, or veteran social commentator could match. When a student who lives with this reality speaks, the message hits differently than any expert analysis ever could. Latham walked listeners through the underlying causes of youth violence in schools, starting with the foundational role of family life. “To understand why violence happens, we have to go back to where children learn their first lessons,” Latham said. “How can we ignore the impact of family environment? The home is a child’s first classroom, and psychologists have long reminded us that children absorb what they live every day. If a child grows up in a home where anger is the only common language, where neglect is the standard, and where conflict never ends, they will grow up believing violence is an acceptable way to communicate. When they walk through the school gates, they don’t just bring their backpacks — they bring intergenerational trauma and harmful behavioral patterns they learned at home.” Latham also detailed how mainstream society and social media platforms glorify violent behavior, gradually desensitizing young minds to its harm. Turning to the responsibility of schools and faith communities, he pushed back against the narrative that all blame falls solely on families and street culture. “We can’t pin all the fault on the home and the streets,” he argued. “We have to look critically at our own educational institutions. Why are so many students disconnected from school life? We have to address the gap between what many of our current curricula teach and the actual needs of young people today. When a student leaves class every day convinced that what they’re learning has nothing to do with their survival or their future career, frustration builds. Boredom and a lack of sense of purpose become the perfect breeding ground for destructive mischief and violence.” The passionate speaker closed with a series of clear, pragmatic solutions, starting with a call to dramatically increase the number of trained, empathetic mental health counselors in every school. “Right now, we are starved for counselors who actually care about our well-being,” Latham said. “We have dozens of teachers who can walk us through solving for x in an algebra equation, but far too few professionals trained to help us understand our own self-worth. A student who is hurting internally doesn’t need a detention slip — they need someone willing to sit and listen.” He also called on local churches to step into a greater role, providing consistent moral guidance and positive adult role models, while partnering with schools to launch mentorship programs and create safe, supportive spaces where young people can learn core values like humility, forgiveness, and patience. Latham did not shy away from holding his own peers accountable, urging them to reject the dangerous myth that violence equals power and strength. “Let me speak directly to my fellow students,” he said. “We have to change the mindset that violence means you’re powerful. Violence isn’t strength. Noise isn’t power. Making people fear you isn’t respect. Real strength is having the courage to walk away from a conflict. Real power is being able to control your own emotions. As Nelson Mandela once said, ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’ But if our schools remain battlegrounds, that weapon becomes dull and useless. Let us turn our schools back into what they were meant to be: places of growth and opportunity. We aren’t here to fight each other — we are here to fight for our futures. Every single student deserves to walk into school every morning feeling safe, not scared.” The question now is whether education stakeholders across the country will choose to listen to Latham’s appeal. He didn’t just speak for himself — he gave voice to the quiet, unheard plea of thousands of young people across St. Vincent who navigate this crisis daily. Unlike many commentators who only point out problems, Latham offered clear, actionable solutions that come from lived experience. It’s time to lend him and his fellow students your ear. This is an opinion piece written by Ann-Marie Ballantyne. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of iWitness News.