Of­fi­cials from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion and oth­er stake­hold­ers in­clud­ing the Na­tion­al Par­ent Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion (NPTA) and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) met with the mem­bers of the po­lice ser­vice to dis­cuss the role of Com­mu­ni­ty Po­lice Of­fi­cers in the re­duc­tion of school vi­o­lence.

Ac­cord­ing to a press re­lease from the Min­istry the TTPS has al­ready  in­sti­tut­ed in­creased pa­trols at 15 schools, fo­cus­ing on main­tain­ing a pres­ence at, and in the vicin­i­ty of these schools; es­pe­cial­ly at the end of the school day.

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion: 

On Mon­day 25th April, of­fi­cials of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion met with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), the Na­tion­al Par­ent Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion (NPTA), the Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) and the As­so­ci­a­tion of Prin­ci­pals of Pub­lic Sec­ondary Schools (APPSS) to dis­cuss the role of Com­mu­ni­ty Po­lice Of­fi­cers in the re­duc­tion of school vi­o­lence.

The pub­lic is ad­vised that based on the re­quest of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, the TTPS has al­ready in­sti­tut­ed in­creased pa­trols at 15 schools, fo­cus­ing on main­tain­ing a pres­ence at, and in the vicin­i­ty of these schools; es­pe­cial­ly at the end of the school day.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the TTPS has in­sti­tut­ed dai­ly school pa­trols to en­sure the pres­ence of of­fi­cers with­in these schools dur­ing the school day. Both mea­sures will en­sure that these schools re­ceive in­creased and sus­tained po­lice pres­ence dai­ly, in an ef­fort to main­tain law and or­der among stu­dents.

The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion and the TTPS have al­so agreed that stu­dents who com­mit acts of vi­o­lence with­in or out­side of the school com­pound will be re­port­ed to the TTPS for fur­ther in­ves­ti­ga­tion and ac­tion, in­clud­ing those in­volved in al­ter­ca­tions dur­ing the pe­ri­od April 19th, 2022 to present.

These school mea­sures have been im­ple­ment­ed while the in­ter­min­is­te­r­i­al com­mit­tee com­piles its re­port, fo­cus­ing on the up­dat­ing of the ex­ist­ing school dis­ci­pline ma­trix and the in­cor­po­ra­tion of ac­tiv­i­ties to en­cour­age pos­i­tive be­hav­iour­al choic­es in stu­dents, such as the pro­mo­tion of youth clubs, stu­dent en­gage­ment, peer me­di­a­tion, men­tor­ship, par­ent clubs etc. in­to the reg­u­lar school timetable.