TTUTA Tobago calls again for talks on school violence

TTUTA TOBAGO OFFICER Bradon Roberts has repeated his call for a national consultation to tackle school violence.

He was responding to last Friday’s incident in which a group of female students at the Signal Hill Secondary School slapped, kicked and jeered at another student. The incident is being investigated by police and other stakeholders.

Saying school violence is not a new phenomenon, Roberts believes it is getting worse, with more students capturing the incidents on video.

He said he was particularly disturbed by the actions of the students who witnessed the incident.

“The very unfortunate thing is listening to these children. If you saw the video, how excited some of them were in the drama – like that is their interest, the passion they have in beating up on each other.”

Roberts said the education system must be fixed from as early as pre-school.

“We need to give our guidance officers and our school support services the resources to be effective. What we are doing is leaving children to go rogue and then look for measures afterwards.

“We need to groom our young ones. We need to put meaningful consultation on the table where we actually look at actionables and we work on those things.”