RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

As the school term nears its end, al­ter­ca­tions erupt­ed in three sep­a­rate schools this week, cul­mi­nat­ing in the most re­cent in­ci­dent near Princes Town West Sec­ondary, where a Form Five stu­dent was stabbed on Thurs­day.

The 15-year-old of St Mary’s Vil­lage, Moru­ga, suf­fered a punc­ture wound on his left side near his rib and has been dis­charged from the Princes Town Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty.

School of­fi­cials, the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry and the po­lice have start­ed sep­a­rate in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the stab­bing.

At least six stu­dents wit­nessed the in­ci­dent but a po­lice of­fi­cial said they are yet to give state­ments. The in­ci­dent oc­curred on the same day term tests end­ed.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, the fa­ther of the in­jured stu­dent con­firmed that the stab­bing oc­curred out­side the school com­pound.

He said his son and two of his class­mates were walk­ing up the Na­pari­ma Ma­yaro Road with three fe­male stu­dents when the in­ci­dent took place.

“I got a phone call that my son hurt and when I reached there, an am­bu­lance had just ar­rived,” the fa­ther re­called. 

He added: “My son told me he and his friends were walk­ing up the road to get a taxi to head back in­to the town when an­oth­er stu­dent came from be­hind and slapped one of the boys who was walk­ing next to my son. With that slap, my son turned around and just as he spun around, the stu­dent pulled out the blade with his right hand and stuck him.”

The vic­tim’s fa­ther claimed the per­pe­tra­tor had been caught with an icepick and a screw­driv­er in the school just last week. He ques­tioned why the stu­dent was al­lowed to come to school af­ter the items were seized.

“I asked my son if they had any al­ter­ca­tion be­fore and he said no. He said he and the fel­la had no dis­pute be­fore. That stu­dent came last week with an icepick or a screw­driv­er and they took it away from him be­cause he want­ed to stab some­body,” the fa­ther claimed.

He said his son has since been dis­charged from the hos­pi­tal and is rest­ing at home.

“He got stitch­es and he is ly­ing down now rest­ing,” he added.

The wor­ried fa­ther feared that stu­dents were mim­ic­k­ing what they saw in the wider so­ci­ety. He lament­ed that too many chil­dren ap­peared not to have any re­spect for au­thor­i­ty.

 “What the younger ones see the old­er ones do­ing is what they will do,” he added.

He said his son was not afraid to re­turn to school to con­tin­ue his ed­u­ca­tion.

The fa­ther added he had no faith in the promise made by Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly that un­ruly stu­dents would be ex­pelled and en­rolled in­to the Mil­i­tary Led Aca­d­e­m­ic Train­ing (Mi­LAT) pro­gramme. 

Guardian Me­dia reached out to Gads­by-Dol­ly for a com­ment but she did not re­spond. 

‘Can­cel school bazaars’

How­ev­er, the pres­i­dent of the Con­cerned Par­ent Move­ment Clarance Men­doza called on the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry to im­ple­ment ad­di­tion­al safe­ty mea­sures to pro­tect chil­dren. He said school vi­o­lence has be­come worse.

“We un­der­stand the Min­is­ter has laid out the mea­sures re­gard­ing Mi­LAT but we al­so need to look at what is hap­pen­ing out­side the school when they con­gre­gate. We want all school bazaars to be can­celled and ad­di­tion­al pa­trols to be placed out­side schools,” he rec­om­mend­ed.

This week there were three fights caught on cam­era and cir­cu­lat­ed on so­cial me­dia. The first oc­curred at Sig­nal Hill in To­ba­go, the sec­ond at Williamsville Sec­ondary and the third out­side Princes Town Sec­ondary.