The chil­dren of the pre-school prin­ci­pal who was fa­tal­ly stabbed yes­ter­day, as well as those of her at­tack­er, will re­ceive coun­selling sup­port from school so­cial work­ers and the Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices Di­vi­sion.

In ad­di­tion, coun­selling will be pro­vid­ed—up­on re­quest—to the chil­dren at­tend­ing the pre-school where the vi­cious at­tack oc­curred.

In an of­fi­cial state­ment re­leased to­day by the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry, Min­is­ter An­tho­ny Gar­cia con­firms that the Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices Di­vi­sion will pro­vide coun­selling sup­port to the child of the de­ceased prin­ci­pal, who at­tends a pub­lic school in Port of Spain.

Min­is­ter Gar­cia al­so con­firms that School So­cial Work­ers would pro­vide coun­selling to the chil­dren of her at­tack­er, who al­so are stu­dents at a pub­lic school in Port of Spain.

Fol­low­ing is the full text of the ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ter’s state­ment…

The Ho­n­ourable An­tho­ny Gar­cia, Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion is ex­tend­ing con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly of Day Care Ser­vices Provider Jizelle Philip, who was killed in close prox­im­i­ty to a day care ser­vices cen­tre in Port of Spain on Mon­day 6th, Jan­u­ary, 2020.

De­spite, the day care ser­vices cen­tre not falling un­der the purview of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, Min­is­ter Gar­cia con­demns this sense­less act of vi­o­lence against some­one who was mak­ing a pos­i­tive con­tri­bu­tion to­wards mould­ing the lives and minds of our na­tion’s chil­dren.

The de­ceased in­di­vid­ual has one child at­tend­ing a pri­ma­ry school in Port-of-Spain. The Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices Di­vi­sion (SSSD) of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion will lend sup­port by ex­tend­ing the re­quired psy­cho­log­i­cal and coun­selling sup­port ser­vices to the child. Our School So­cial Work­ers would al­so ex­tend coun­selling ser­vices to the chil­dren of the al­leged at­tack­er. These chil­dren are al­so at­tend­ing pub­lic schools in the Port of Spain Ed­u­ca­tion Dis­trict.

Psy­chol­o­gists, Guid­ance Coun­sel­lors and School So­cial Work­ers from the Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices Di­vi­sion of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion are al­so will­ing to ex­tend their ser­vices to the chil­dren of the day care ser­vices cen­tre, if re­quest­ed by their par­ents.