Page 72 - Social Norms Survey

harass you and you a try tell them fi stop and dem a tek it fi a habit”; “Dem always a abuse

the girl dem and gi dem some lick. Dem bigger than we—more powerful.” They also report
that the bigger boys bully them to become girlfriends. In Central High, according to the

Grade 7 boys, relationships between Grade 7 girls and Grade 10 boys are standard and
the girls fight each other over these relationships.

The Grade 10 girls from Anchovy High mentioned none of these experiences. For them

girls had the biggest problems in school and these were related to financial hardship and
pregnancy. These problems might in fact lead to this: “If we don’t have the financial stuff,

for example; if we don’t have the proper home arrangements, and we have to go out
there and get the money for ourselves. And we get more abused in that process, so our

school life can be very hard at times.”

This phenomenon does not necessarily start at high school: it could begin in primary school.
Senior Guidance Counsellor Ms. C. Dacres, who has worked for 14 years at Vauxhall High,

talked of “purple touch.” This starts at Gds. 5 and 6 in primary school. A boy touches an
area close to the “untouchable,” that is close to the breast or vagina, and pays the girl for

this. Girls may also do this to the boys, and the boys pay. Note the commodification and
the concept that males must always be the ones to pay for sexual gratification.

Bullying and Stealing Among Boys

The complaints of the Vauxhall High and Kingston High boys related to stealing, ranging
from text books and exam notes to phones, football boots, ties, bus cards, even uniforms

while they were having physical education classes. At Central High the Grade 7 boys
complained of bullying from the older Grade 10 and 11 boys: “Like dem wi a walk pass

and bum inna yu head back”; “Kunk up yu”; [and say things like] “Hey, boy, guh suck yuh
modda.” These big boys do not bully the smaller girls, only the smaller boys. It is the bigger

girls who bully the small girls from jealousy about their relations with older boys. They said
there was occasional stealing but not much and that there was no extortion because

the Principal had expelled the boys from Farm who were doing this, apparently with an
enhanced sense of power from their familiarity with guns: “Bare Farm boy deh a Lennox,

a bare fighting an dem sumtin deh. D teacha cyan tap dem. Dem cuss badwud and d
teacha cyan duh nutten, Sir”; “Tru dem see a gun, Sir, dem guh a school guh bad up e

48