While as a Territory we pause to celebrate the academic performance of dozens of our students who have graduated, and moved onto another stage in life, we also must remember our youth are still tormented – caught up in criminal activity and drug use.

It is a tell tale sign that our youth population is in need of guidance when 26 juveniles between the ages of 15 and 17 years old and including two girls, appeared in the Youth Court on Thursday June 26, charged with various offences.

Such mass appearances solidified the crucial role of the Youth Court.

While some of the offences may be considered in a Court as minor offences and fetch light penalties, others are eye openers for the society.

The more serious offences include unlawful possession of cannabis, theft, indecent language, resisting arrest, affray/taking part in a fight, burglary, going equipped to steal, common assault, assault on police.

Most of the Juveniles were repeat offenders, some of whom are on probation and curfew. We seem to have a pretty good idea of the youth gone astray because they keep misbehaving and displaying a general attitude of disrespect for the rule of law.

One of the cases stands out, a 17 year old faced charges of destroying the back windshield of his mother’s motor car, assaulting his mother by slapping her in the face and escaping from a moving police jeep while in the custody of the East End police officers.

It makes one stop to think about the thought pattern of a child that raises his hand against his own mother – such level of disrespect would have been unthinkable in years gone.

Police, while carrying out their duty are also understanding of the problem facing the younger generation. Senior Inspector, McKenzie Baltimore told parents earlier this year at a community meeting in the East End/Look Look Community that the force wants to work with youth.

He also pleaded with parents to appreciate the role of the police since they are not waiting around with glee to snap up youth offenders, but he firmly warned that parents needed to assist the police where necessary and not obstruct any investigation.

However, in Youth Court, a father was fined $800 to be paid in three weeks time or spend 30 days in prison for assisting his 16 year old son in violating his probation. The 16 year old son was then remanded to a Police Station on Tortola.

Often times, we tend to blame parents when a child commits an act that runs concurrent with the rule of law, but we also neglect the fact that we live next door or we can say ‘no’ to a child that was behaving in a unruly manner on the road.

Guidance is the single most important way we can help our youth overcome the temptations of peer pressure. We as adults must set the example for our future generation to follow.

Prosecutor Inspector Jefferson Knight summed up the appearance of the 26 youth offenders by calling on the community on a whole to intervene to stamp out criminal activities amongst the youth.

He noted that the Territory will head straight into a serious catastrophic disaster of crime if the youth population appearing in court is not reduced.

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