A criminologist at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Dr. Jones Opoku-Ware, is advocating for enhanced parental or teacher supervision of students in Senior High School (SHS) in light of a recent shooting incident at the Adventist Day Senior High School in Kumasi.
A student of the school, on Friday, April 4, suffered gunshot wounds inflicted by a classmate who is alleged to have accidentally fired the weapon he took to class.
Dr. Opoku-Ware attributes this issue to instances where some parents fail to groom their children, often leaving them to struggle in finding their identity.
“A lot of parents have ignored their responsibilities in terms of raising their kids and giving them an identity, so a lot of these guys, growing up suffer from criminological psychology echo identity crisis,” he said.
He believes teachers in SHS have lost their power to control students on school premises, often allowing them to be influenced by peers.
“Unfortunately, because there’s lack of proper supervision and the kind of education system being run in the secondary schools, the teachers have lost their power so students know they can do anything and get away with it.
“This gives the students the opportunity to carve those identities within themselves. In carving an identity, one of the things these kids normally would want to look at is for them to show some level of belonging to a group. They want to be seen as the tough guys and are brave to pull certain stunts that others can’t.
“Having a gun and brandishing it in your school creates a certain fear around you and gives you a certain identity. So basically it’s all part of an identity culture that these kids are trying to create,” said the Criminologist.
Speaking on Luv Fm, Dr. Opoku-Ware revealed most wards know where their parents’ weapons are hidden, asserting the need for proper protection of firearms.
“A lot of times parents think that when they have guns at home and they hide it, children don’t see. In fact there’s a study in the US that shows that, when kids were asked whether they knew where their parents hid guns, 45% of these kids said yes, even though the parents didn’t tell them where their guns are hidden, the kids on their own were able to locate it. Most of the homocides that happened in the US for instance, more than 50% of them involve kids because.
“It is advisable that guns are normally stored in safe locks. We have what we call box locks for handguns that we have to deploy to keep the guns in. Children won’t be able to get access because they’d have to use fingerprints or face recognition and some codes to be able to go in. And it is important to separate the firearms from the ammunition by keeping them in separate boxes,” he explained.
The Criminologist further advised teachers to conduct random searches to reduce the chances of such violence repeating itself in schools.
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