The education officer for the Department of Corrections has urged fathers to step up and play a positive role in the lives of their children.

Shawnette Somner said that absent fathers was one of the main causes of gun crime in Bermuda, while she maintained that the education system had failed inmates she now worked with in prison.

Ms Somner was speaking at a public forum at the Bermuda Industrial Union last night exploring gun violence in Bermuda and potential solutions to the problem.

“The violence among girls is escalating at a rapid rate,” Ms Somner said. “Are we are going to wait until it reaches the point it has with the males? It’s about being proactive against reactive.

“We can march for immigration but we can not demand better for our youth.

“Our men need to come forward, they need to put everything else aside, and make time for their sons and daughters.”

Ms Somner told an audience of more than 50 men and women that gun violence had never been treated as seriously as it should have been.

Meanwhile, community activist, Gina Spence, who has lost two relatives to gun violence, spoke about her work as part of the StreetSafe team and the need to engage with those involved in gun and gang violence.

“It’s a high-risk job, I am in the line of fire, but someone has to take that risk,” she said.

“We need to talk to these young men, there are many reasons why they express their need to be involved in this kind of activity.

“Some of them don’t stand a chance from the womb. They have suffered childhood trauma, but we play it down. Their self esteem is low.

“A lot of these young men out there we have failed. The education system has failed them.”

Ms Spence lamented the scores of children who had lost fathers as a result of gun crime.

“Sixty children have been left behind by gun violence,” she said. “We could triple that number if we include nieces, cousins and other relations and easily make 250 to 300 children that have been affected.

“Then on the flip side we have the perpetrators too. Are we ready for the almost 300 children on both sides to sit down in classrooms or play in the same football team? What are we doing to help them?

“Through our Champions Programme we are doing this. We want to talk about solutions.”

Leon O’Brien from the Black Alliance told the public forum that employment was the key to solving the island’s gun violence problem.

“We don’t cry enough, we don’t march enough, as if this issue was important. We would be up in the street if it was,” he said.

“We have to make drastic change.

“We are going to have to take children away from Bermuda to re-educate them.

“We have to look at ourselves. It is our responsibility to help these young people.”

Teacher Pamela Richardson called for the community to get more involved with the lives of young black men.

She added: “Each person holds the answer.

“We are failing. We have got to address the social ills in the black race now and we all have a part to play.”