TTUTA officer on Tobago brawl: Too many children in violence

TT Unified Teachers’ Association Tobago officer Bradon Roberts has lamented that there are too many incidents of violence involving children.

He was speaking with Newsday on May 22, two days after a brawl involving students and two adults outside the Mason Hall Secondary School.

A video of the incident on social media showed a woman in a heated quarrel with a male student just outside the school compound. The squabble escalated into violence as the male student was seen cuffing and kicking the woman. A man was also beaten after a group of students joined in the fracas, attacking both adults while they were on the ground.

Roberts said, “We are having too many children on the wrong path of development. They are developing along the gang culture and those criminal intentions and so on – that’s where we’re seeing the trend in terms of the deviant behaviours in our schools.”

He said on the other hand, he isn’t seeing the level of support a parent should be able to give.

“I understand that some of those parents who did not make good use of their education in their time are now parents. So we have a vicious cycle of these persons who are going along that road of delinquency becoming parents and then when we call for parents, it’s those persons we’re calling.”

He reiterated his call for an all-hands-on-deck approach in dealing with these situations.

“I’ve been calling for that, where we have the community police, the social services, the Division of Education, the Ministry of Education, our lawmakers in terms of amending some of those laws regarding children. You’re giving children all the rights to do as they please.”

He said there are no programmes for those children who are not doing well in school.

“The primary school is also kicking up and it's difficult for me to understand expelling a primary school child, but we need to have programmes for children who are simply not able to read nor able to write and they’re just giving no end to worries.”

But parents, he said, should be held accountable, “so the PTA, the Village Council, we need to have everybody working towards fixing the issue or else we’re going to eventually have a society of mainly criminals.”

The Division of Education, Research and Technology said it was aware of the incident.

“While the incident occurred off the school grounds, we are deeply concerned as it impacts the wellbeing of our students and the wider school community,” it said in a media release on May 21.

The release said the matter is currently being investigated in collaboration with school officials and the relevant authorities.

“We take this opportunity to remind all stakeholders, parents, guardians, and members of the public of the importance of following established school and division protocols when addressing concerns such as bullying or interpersonal conflict.”

It said schools have designated channels through which such matters should be reported and managed, including guidance counselling, school administration and student support services.

“Direct confrontation or retaliation, particularly in public or violent forms, undermines these systems and can escalate already sensitive situations. DERTech remains committed to promoting safe, respectful, and supportive learning environments and will continue to work with all stakeholders to uphold these values. We encourage continued co-operation and dialogue as we collectively safeguard the wellbeing of our students and staff.”

Snr Supt Earl Elie told Newsday on May 22 that police are reviewing footage of the incident.