Jason Christian and Preston Rivers were only the most recent gangland casualties to go through the Alternative Education Centre (AEC) programme, but the problems started long before they arrived.

The five youth killed between 13 September and 22 September attended the AEC, which Minister for Education Rolston Anglin famously described at a 21 September West Bay public meeting as the “biggest failure we’ve ever had”, saying 63% of those who had gone through the system were “either dead or in Northward”, and vowed to disband the unit, sending the troubled students back to
mainstream schools.

“You can’t blame the AEC because that is only one factor in a group of reasons,” said Sean Cahill, who taught both Mr Christian and Mr Rivers during his time at the school.

“We need to approach this in a whole different way that is less reactive, something not after things have gone too far,” he said.

Mr Cahill, Policy Advisor for Behaviour to the Ministry, was a counselor during AEC’s 2007/08 school year, then principal for the 2009/10 year, replaced ultimately by longtime Cayman educator Evelyn Rockett.

Previously a senior manager and deputy principal in a similar Emotional Behavoural Difficulties (EBD) institution outside London, Mr. Cahill now works closely with Senior Policy Advisor Clive Baker, another longtime Caymanian educationist.

Established in 1991 for 28 students, the AEC was designed for young EBD men who could not attend mainstream school, Mr Baker said.

“You had a huge range of behavioural difficulties,” Mr Cahill said.  “Drugs, psychoses, violence with oppositional tendencies, many were school-phobic. A lot came from families who were not supportive of the educational system, and environments of crime or abuse.

“Some don’t live at home, but stay with friends or elsewhere. Some are doing well to be there at all,” he said. Those who interfere with other students, damage themselves, disrespect others, move to the AEC as an interim facility or are referred by the courts to the ‘Therapy Unit’,” he said, which, specifically, is the 10-student Bonaventure Boys Home, which opened only in September 2010.

While “reintegration” back into the mainstream was always the goal, by the time EBD students reached years eight and nine, their direction was largely set and “their ability to reintegrate was not encouraging. Very few did so,” Mr Baker said.

No provision exists for those beyond the reach of Bonaventure, however, Mr Baker said. The dropouts usually go to Eagle House, Northward Prison’s youth wing, partly inhabited by overspill from the already overcrowded main cells. In January 2013, government hopes to open a 24-hour, 34-bed residential Youth Rehabilitation Facility, on Fairbanks Road, with both education and therapeutic units.

“It’s about a continuum of provision,” said Mr Baker, “of education and support from primary school”. Both he and Mr Cahill acknowledge the system was flawed when created in 1991, employing teachers that were not prepared to manage EBD students, teaching only five hours per day, sending troubled students back home every afternoon.

“Now, though, with a new approach, high-risk students will still be somewhere else,” in residential units, he said, “but transition students with low-risk behaviours will remain in school, doing maths and PE and shop, while a behavioural specialist will sort out the range of issues.

Training for staff will include “de-escalation” techniques, calming a situation before it spins out of control, while, just two years ago, the Ministry launched the Cayman Islands Further Education
Centre (CIFEC).

The CIFEC will take over from the old AEC “transition unit”, aimed at lower-risk students, providing individualised curricula and vocational training, but still allied with Cayman’s public schools.

Mr Anglin told his Legislative Assembly colleagues on Friday that the old AEC would remain, but  “in a self-contained area within the CIFEC site and will be used to accommodate students who are awaiting transfer to the therapeutic community or are in need of emergency placement outside of the mainstream environment.”