Zero tolerance on school violence

The TT Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA), Tobago branch, has declared a zero-tolerance approach to school violence while the Division of Education said officers in its Student Support Services unit have been meeting with principals, teachers, parents and students to resolve issues.

Assistant Secretary in the Office of the Chief Secretary with responsibility for Education, Innovation and Energy, Marisha Osmond said the Division’s Student Support Services has been involved in interventions.

“I know that they (Student Support Services) have been going into the schools and they have been making interventions. They have been meeting with the principals, the teachers, the parents and the students likewise,” Osmond told Newsday Tobago on Saturday.

She condemned the violence and deviant behavior and said the school’s curriculum allowed for the teaching of conflict resolution.

“Violence in any form is not something that I would condone especially among school children. I think as teachers, as a part of the school curriculum we teach conflict resolution especially when we have to do health and family life education, as well as social studies, those things are part of the curriculum.

“So, I think as educators, we try to encourage children to find other ways to deal with issues that may confront them apart from violence and or lashing out, but violence is something that should not be condoned in any form or the other,” she said.

Last Thursday, Chief Secretary and Secretary of Education, Kelvin Charles, issued a press release, stating that he was deeply concerned about the levels of violence being displayed by some of the secondary school students and young persons in Tobago.

“This level of misconduct will not be tolerated at our institutions of learning. Young persons and the general public must be aware that our schools are not thoroughfares for violence and the greatest level of order and decency are demanded and expected on our compounds,” Charles said.

He said educational institutions in Tobago were committed to best practices and the promotion of overall excellence from staff and student fraternities.

TTUTA’s Tobago head, Orlando Kerr, said on Saturday he was yet to speak with the school’s staff representative on last week’s incidents but noted the union’s zero-tolerance approach to violence in schools.

The focus on school violence comes on the heels of two incidents last week, one in which a schoolboy suffered a chop to his head while on the compound of the Scarborough Library, and the other where an intruder entered a school and accosted a student. Both incidents involved students from the Signal Hill Secondary School.

On Tuesday, 17-year-old Deshawn Guy, a Form Three student was treated and discharged from the Scarborough General Hospital, after being chopped in the head with a cutlass in Scarborough during an altercation behind the library.

Videos shared on social media Tuesday night showed male students in the Signal Hill Secondary school uniform, fighting with other boys, dressed in plain clothing, and carrying objects in their hands, and subsequently Guy sitting on a bench near the Amphitheatre to the back of the library, with blood dripping from a wound to his head.

In the second incident, reports are that a former student, armed with a weapon, entered the school’s compound and accosted a student. The intruder was eventually held by security personnel outside the school grounds.

In an earlier incident on January 17, another Signal Hill Secondary student, Fifth Former Jaden Pereira, suffered head injuries at school when he was hit in the head with a concrete object during a dispute.

He was taken to the Scarborough General Hospital at Signal Hill, then flown to Trinidad for medical treatment. His skull was fractured, and part had to be removed during surgery at the Port of Spain General Hospital.

Jaden’s father, Sean Pereira, has said his son continues to experience dizziness and headaches and has not been able to return to school. The family has begun legal action against the Division of Education.

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