A regular Source feature, Undercurrents explores issues, ideas and events as they develop beneath the surface in the Virgin Islands community.
For hundreds of public school students, last week was a special opportunity to learn a lot of things they don’t usually cover in the classroom. They got first-hand information about what it’s like to be in college as well as about what it’s like to be in prison. There were some practical tips for job-hunting and some advice from a former gang member.
The third annual Youth Summit, sponsored by the Department of Education’s Division of Special Education and coordinated with the Virgin Islands Anti-Gang Committee, was a high-energy, fast-paced program of presentations and participation. Each day’s program was tailored to a different age group; Tuesday was devoted to fifth and sixth grades, Wednesday to seventh and eighth grades, Thursday to ninth and 10th, and Friday to 11th and 12th grades.
Although the summit is a product of the Special Education division, students from across the spectrum were invited. Some asked to be included; some were referred by teachers or school counselors. The summit was held at the Sugar Bay Resort and Spa on St. Thomas’ East End.
The venue itself “is a part of the experience,” said Sheryl Serano-Griffith, district director of Special Education. Some of the students had never been in a hotel before.
Some 310 juniors and seniors from Charlotte Amalie High School and Ivanna Eudora Kean High School were at Friday’s session.
They heard from U.S. Attorney Ronald Sharpe, who told them his office takes a three-pronged approach to crime: prevention, vigorous enforcement of the law, and aggressive re-entry programs to help incarcerated people get back into society when they get out of jail.
“Everybody has that potential” to contribute to the community, he said.
“College’s not for everyone,” Sharpe also told the group. But college graduates do have a “leg up” on the career ladder. With or without it, he advised, “create opportunities for yourself.”
Webster Fernando of the V.I. Labor Department took it a step further. “College isn’t for everybody, but education is,” he said. Fernando told them to look around and see what sort of careers and what sort of jobs are available. “You want to understand the labor market as it exists” so you know what to pursue.
Fernando also told the students that Labor offers a number of free programs for them, including specialized training, job preparedness and placement in summer jobs.
The youngest speaker Friday, Army National Guard Sgt. Wilfred Todman, told the students how he had turned his life around.
In his teens, as an active gang member, he said he was well known to police. “I was in every squad car on St. Thomas,” he said. “My mother’s friends used to tell her she should take out an insurance policy on me,” Todman added, because they thought he would be dead by the time he was 25.
He’s 27 now and was twice on the security detail for Vice President Joe Biden when he visited the territory.
The credo of the gang is supposed to be that gang members look out for one another, but when you’re picked up by the police and when you’re in front of a judge, he said you would be alone. “You’re going to be there by yourself,” Todman said, asking was a “casket made for two.”
“It’s for one,” he said.
In an interview before the program, Todman and law enforcement officers agreed gangs in the Virgin Islands are changing. For one thing, it’s more of a business now. Even the language reflects that shift. A member headed for a gang outing, will say “I’m gonna put in work,” Todman said.
Another change is that gangs are targeting younger and younger members; recruitment begins “as early as fifth grade,” said Lt. Lorne Pierce. And some children are born into the gang culture, being offspring of gang members. “We’re talking about a whole new breed we haven’t experienced yet.”
Given that scenario, Serano-Griffith and program manager Truvia Plaskett said they may consider including younger children for future summits.
Each year the summit is designed to meet the students’ needs, they stressed. This year there was an emphasis on career readiness. Even the younger students were encouraged to start thinking about what they may want to be and what opportunities are available.
“Our heart is driven to help kids make better choices …to identify with hope,” Plaskett said.
