'Implement strategies to change mindset of delinquent students'

REITERATING his stance that police in schools alone won't tackle the issue of youth delinquency and criminal acts, TT Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) Tobago Officer Bradon Roberts is calling for better measures to be implemented in collaboration with the police in schools initiative.

On September 15, the THA Division of Education, Research and Technology revealed in a press release that from September 22, police will be based at the Signal Hill and Mason Hall secondary schools as part of government’s school-oriented policing initiative.

But in an interview on September 23, Roberts said his concerns remain even as police officers have taken up duties at the two Tobago schools.

"We need to get to the real issues and address the gap as too many of our students are failing, they are going through the system and ending up on the blocks and so on, with the same police officers trying to catch them.

"It shows that if we do not address the mindset of our youth, placing police officers in schools is just a temporary flash band where we’re not really fixing the source of the issue.”

Roberts said the reality is that some youths do not fear or respect the police. "We have already seen some of the reactions of students in Trinidad, they are facing up to the officers,” he said in reference to an incident at the Preysal Secondary School where a sleeping policeman faced the embarrassment of being locked into a classroom. A student has since be suspended for this incident.

He said that some students who attained only 30 per cent in their exams are sent to the secondary school system with the expectation that they would succeed, even when they are not given the adequate resources and programmes tailor-made for their specific academic needs.

“So the optics of violence at Mason Hall secondary is no surprise. Students engaging in violence are mainly those who are not doing well in their schoolwork, they do not have a level of discipline. Police officers cannot address this.”