We don’t yet know who is responsible for the death of 12-year-old Janessa Jones but we do know that one or more of the adults in her life failed in their duty to keep her safe. The knowledge that we are responsible for our children is why the injury or death of a child affects us so deeply. Naturally, there are many questions about what happened that fateful night and so far there are several contradictory accounts, all of which reveal unsatisfactory levels of care. One or more of these stories must be false and they must have been fabricated to cover up some kind of wrong doing.
We do not know if the stories were intended to protect someone who may have been involved in Janessa’s death or to excuse the lack of judgement in sending a child on an errand that would involve her travelling at night to or from Belize City. It reminds us of the story surrounding the disappearance of Benjamin and Onelia Rash, two children of a similar age who disappeared after being sent from their home village of San Marcos to sell limes in Punta Gorda. Despite extensive searches involving the police, BDF and villagers no trace of the Rash children has ever been found.
These and similar instances should remind us that we no longer live in a small society where people knew each other. Many adult Belizeans remember being sent to run errands or to sell journey cakes or panades when they were children, often before or after attending school. Even schools would give students donation letters to take out before a major fund raising event. This tradition was acceptable when Belize City was made up of tightly knit neighbourhoods with families that knew each other; it may still be tolerable within a village but “dis ya time no stan like before time”. Children cannot be sent out in anonymous urban settings or travel unaccompanied to other villages or towns on errands. We fail our children when we expose them to harm in these ways.
This is not to cast judgement on families who are struggling to survive but to remind us all that some survival strategies of the past are no longer appropriate. The neighbour who would always find a plate of food for children whose parents could not provide it is no longer living next door, or if she is, she lives behind a high fence for safety. The grandmother who looked after children when their parents were working may herself have to work to support herself. The school teacher who knew every child and their families is a thing of the past. The policeman who patrols the streets is often seen as an enemy rather than as a support. Harking back to “the good old days” will not bring them back even if they were really such good days with their lack of opportunity and rigid class divisions.
As a society we need to find new ways to help families cope. It is not enough to provide parenting training to new parents; we will have to find the time in our crowded school curricula to train those who are still children how to become better parents in the future. We must also develop support systems for children whose families, for whatever reason, are failing them. We should do these things because it is our duty to protect our children, but it is also in our best self interest since these children will cost society far more in the long run if no one intervenes to save them.
Let the terrible lessons to be learned from the fates of Janessa Jones and Benjamin and Onelia Rash serve to remind us all that we must do everything we can so that we do not fail other children in the way that we have collectively failed these three.
