Children abused at school every day

INDEPENDENT Senator Hazel Thompson-Ahye said children were being abused at schools on a daily basis. She was contributing to budget debate in the Senate on Friday.

She said Education Minister Anthony Garcia should not believe for a minute that the situation at Tranquillity Government School was a unique scenario; she was likely referring to allegations of verbal abuse levelled against a teacher at the school.

"Children are abused in their homes and schools every day."

She recalled she received a telephone call from a man who said his six-year-old child was afraid to go to school because the teacher was beating the child. She said she spoke with the principal and when she got past the "why he didn't come to me" they had a civil conversation and she promised to investigate. Thompson-Ahye said she invited the principal to come to one of her programmes on restorative practice and expressed hope that it was being instituted.

She said she did not believe Garcia should have said that a child that hit a teacher had no place in school and stressed the need to move away from punitive discipline to restorative justice.

She also spoke about the Forensic Science Centre and said, for years, former pathologist at the centre Dr Valery Alexandrov often complained about the centre, how it is understaffed and how he was in danger of losing his licence because he was required to do more than 250 autopsies against international standards.

"Yet the Government is insisting there is an adequate number of forensic pathologists. Now I challenge the Government to show how many autopsies each pathologist has done over the last 12 months or so. Until then the credibility remains in question. Investigations do not align with the (national security) minister's assertion. Facts are stubborn things."

She stressed a properly functioning and well-resourced centre with qualified personnel who follow proper protocols was vital to the investigation of crime.

She said the centre could be found by "following your nose" as the stench would lead you there.

"I had occasion to visit that abnormal place and it exemplifies national unity. Love and sharing among fellow sufferers. You have Alcolado, you have Limacol, you have perfume–anything to cover the stench of rotting bodies that permeate the atmosphere. And I wondered 'do people work here? Do people work here.' That must be inhumane."

She said she celebrated the Children's Court but expressed concern that so many children were being brought before it by their parents and stressed the need for parenting programmes.

"The parents should be before the courts."

She also expressed hope that some of the money in the budget would be used to ease the suffering of people when it came to ther health sector where there were long waits for surgery which could be a death sentence.

She also complimented Culture Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly on Carifesta XIV in Trinidad as "the greatest show we ever had in TT."

She added: "I felt very proud to be a Trinidad and Tobagonian."