I have thought long and hard about writing a piece, but there are so many issues that seem to have a stranglehold on this little territory, I have chosen a few to comment about as time permits.

Look at those horse stables they’ve renamed the Elmore Stoutt High School. What are they doing about that school? What about those hot classrooms they have up there? What about putting this money into building a new school? Come on, Education Minister Andrew Fahie: Wake up, man!

I won’t even get into the Althea Scatliffe Primary School and what it needs as we speak. This is the biggest primary school in the VI and if it barely drizzles, you need a dinghy to get to your car in the parking lot because of the inadequate drainage there now. How about putting the money into that?

And what about that swamp you all made and called it a playground for the same school? I wouldn’t be surprised if during the hurricane season and after some rains, we find alligators living there. How about cleaning up that horrible mess? Put that money into those school projects.

I also won’t go into how disgusting and wet the inside of the school gets when it rains. I won’t even go there! Mr. Fahie, do the right thing! Why is it so hard to do the right thing for our children? Get the schools up to par! One hundred thousand dollars: As the old people would say, “Can you beat a thing like that?”

While I am happy that U.P.’s Cineplex finally opened and that families have somewhere to go to spend time together, it is a bit disturbing to see what is happening there. I understand that initially when the Cineplex opened, certain age groups were not allowed in certain areas after a certain time. But, apparently, this rule is slowly flying out the window.

I understand, too, that there are some underage children being allowed to watch inappropriate movies. But who do we blame for this? Should the blame be put on the cineplex owner or on us, the parents who allow our children to see these movies? I am asking the cineplex owner to look into this matter once again. Parents, I am urging all of us to monitor and supervise what our children are doing and seeing when they visit the cineplex.

Some of us allow our children to roam free on weekends without adequate supervision. This is such a dangerous thing, especially with what is going on in the VI today. Below are the movie ratings, which parents ought to consider before allowing children to view certain pictures.

• G: The movie contains nothing that would offend parents for viewing by their children.

• PG: Parents are urged to use “parental guidance,” as the movie may contain some material they might not want their younger children to view.

• PG-13: Parents are urged to be cautious, as some material may be inappropriate for pre-teenagers.

• R: The movie contains some adult material. Parents are urged to learn more about the movie before taking their younger children with them. Generally, it is not appropriate for parents to bring their young children with them to R-rated movies.

• NC-17: No children are admitted.

Sexual abuse

I was completely dumbfounded for the last couple of weeks after learning about these horrible cases of sexual abuse that are coming to light. Most troubling is the number of cases being reported that involve children. It does not matter whether they are boys or girls. I am left to ponder: What about those cases that we do not hear of? It is a scary thing.

Parents, let us keep watch on our children, and keep them close to us. Let us be encouraging. Let us be loving. Let us be mindful. Let us be vigilant. Let us be quick to take action. Let us be good listeners. Let us be aggressive in bringing these culprits to justice.

Don’t hide or sweep it under the rug. Don’t say that children are crazy when they tell you. Don’t punish them when they open up. Sometimes we tend to judge children who are behaving a certain way at school and label them. But most of the time, we do not know what is going on with them.

Parents, let us continue to pray for our children. That God will protect them in their coming in and going out. That they may be covered under his blood. That God will build a hedge of fire around them at all times, and that no harm will come nigh unto them. That God will grant us as parents the patience and faith and strength to deal with our children.

Our children are gifts from God, and God has promised us that he will never give us more than we can bear. Prayer is the only way I can see us coming out of this stranglehold that the enemy has placed on us in this community. Parents, let us monitor and supervise our children, and do whatever it takes to fight for them and bring them back to us. If this means going places and taking part in activities that you would rather avoid, do it anyway.