On Wednesday, THE STAR showed just how deep the 'whe yu can do fe yusself?' mentality runs in the Jamaican psyche, as the main story was about teachers charging students to return confiscated items. When the money changes hands neither parents nor school administration gets involved, to the benefit of the student.

Of course, based on sting operations, which have caught police officers charging motorists to drop traffic tickets, the 'whe yu can do fi yusself?' attitude is rampant on the streets. The crucial difference here, though, is that while a motorist may be legally on the road and break a rule, such as going over the speed limit nor overtaking on an unbroken white line, in this case the students are carrying items to school that they should not.

Confiscated items

And they are expensive items, jewellery and a Razr phone among the confiscated items mentioned in the story. There was also a telling comment from one of the students, about the timing of the raids for banned items - about two weeks before pay day, when "dem likkle money done". It is hard to not be sympathetic towards a student or students who show such obvious contempt for those who teach them.

That said, it is certainly not right for the teachers to charge the students, but they are simply operating along the same materialistic lines that those who carry expensive, illicit items to school do. Maybe, those involved on both sides of the transactions are speaking the same language of cash and flash, but the grumbling is coming from those who are not in a position to cash in.