‘Boxing can help curb violence in schools’

Boxing may be viewed by some people as a barbaric sport, but for Dr Lola Cunningham it can be a helpful tool to curb crime and violence among students and as an alternative to work off their pent-up anger if it is introduced in schools.

Cunningham, owner of the Lola Cunningham Foundation, aims to provide traditional boxing training, self-defence and the use of heavy punching bags as a means of anger management.

“Boxing teaches discipline and should therefore be taught in schools as an extracurricular activity. I think we have now found a method for curbing crime and violence. Boxing gives you a sense of calculation and discipline. There are mantras they have to recite before they get into the training. They are sharpened so it stems violence,” Cunningham told The Gleaner.

“It is a gospel I want to spread to parents across the world. They could get their children into a programme that has boxing injected into whatever curricular activities they are doing,” Cunningham added.

During a boxing exhibition at the Herbert Morrison Technical High School last Thursday, Cunningham noted that if it wasn’t for the boxing gym, her daughter Jasmine may have ended up in prison.

“If boxing was not an intervention for my daughter, she would have been on the most wanted list. Jasmine was fighting every day, knocking out people’s teeth. I told the other parents that I don’t know why she is doing this. She was like a bully, everybody was afraid of her,” Cunningham admitted.

“I never stopped searching; I travelled around almost the whole Montego Bay to see if I could get a school that could cater to her needs. It was the principal of a school for the gifted that saw her hit a senior boy in the knee with a bat and saw her fighting, as a talent and recommended a trainer for her,” the mother added.

“I was embarrassed at first but bought into the idea. They helped me to get her assessed by a clinical psychologist and told me that because of the death of her father she was just angry. The gym helped her to release that anger and because of boxing she never fought again. I said thank the Lord, and if it is one thing that I am doing for the rest of my life it is to touch other people because I see what it has done for my child.”

Jasmine Graham, Cunningham’s daughter who is now the AMBC Female Heavy Weight Boxing champion of the Caribbean, is grateful that her mother never gave up on her.

ANGER MANAGEMENT

“As a delinquent child I felt I was on top of the world, thinking I was the baddest thing. Boxing helped me with anger management, self-control, discipline and timing. It developed a unique lifestyle. I needed to manoeuvre what I thought was in my head. When I started the gym, I was still in rage and surprisingly I broke down at one training session because I didn’t know that so much anger was built up in me. It was a joyful moment being in the gym to be explosive. I also knew it was an area where I could be explosive and not get into any trouble,” Graham explained.

“I had times when fighting at school police would come to me. I would look at the officer and tell her to let me go because I was irate. I used to tell my mother that even if the lock me up, I would pick the lock, I was that bad,” she added.

Clinical psychologist Dr Beverly Scott agreed that boxing as an extracurricular activity in schools is a good idea.

“Emotionally, I think it will help them. They will be able to expend their pent-up emotions and aggression, the deep-seated feelings that they have carrying, that they will just let out on their peers. In a structured environment, they should do well and that will help them to learn more discipline,” Scott explained.

“They might come out to be good boxers. Just like children who learn karate are disciplined, they will beat you up but learn not to do that unless your life is threatened,” she added.

Crime and violence in schools has been an ongoing issue, with recent reports indicating a surge of violence among students across Jamaica.

Just last week, several schools in the Corporate Area had to be closed owing to violence among their students. Last Thursday, a 15-year-old student of the Irwin High School in St James was fatally stabbed by a schoolmate.

Multiple benefits

As for clinical psychologist Georgia Rose, she stated that “research demonstrates that participation in uniformed activities such as sports, clubs and societies, has multiple adaptive benefits for children. They reduce the likelihood of engagement with substances, reduce idle activities, build self-esteem, promote healthy peer relationships, build industry and bolster creativity. All of these lessen the incidence of maladaptive behaviours such as peer-to-peer aggression and self-harm.”

The initiative was officially launched in February last year at the Anchovy High School. The positive feedback received had students wanting to get involved at the boxing gym.

Cornwall College and Irwin High School are earmarked to have the idea integrated in their respective systems.