Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

While the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry has af­firmed that stu­dents ex­pelled from pub­lic schools are not el­i­gi­ble for read­mis­sion, this pol­i­cy ap­plies on­ly in cas­es of se­ri­ous mis­con­duct, such as school fights or threats to safe­ty. Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Michael Dowlath re­as­sured the Sen­ate yes­ter­day that the min­istry is ac­tive­ly work­ing to safe­guard the right to ed­u­ca­tion for these stu­dents, in­clud­ing those placed in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Janelle John-Bates about pro­tect­ing the rights of chil­dren in­volved in school fights, Dowlath said:

“The Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry has not tak­en this po­si­tion light­ly. While ex­pul­sion is ground­ed in the Ed­u­ca­tion Act Chap 39:01 and ap­plied in cas­es of se­ri­ous mis­con­duct, we are com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing con­tin­ued ed­u­ca­tion­al op­por­tu­ni­ties for af­fect­ed stu­dents.”

Key mea­sures im­ple­ment­ed by the min­istry in­clude:

Due Process: Thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­duct­ed by the School Su­per­vi­sion and Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices Di­vi­sions be­fore an ex­pul­sion or­der is is­sued, tak­ing in­to ac­count the stu­dent’s age, back­ground, and dis­ci­pli­nary his­to­ry.

Sup­port Ser­vices: Ex­pelled stu­dents and their fam­i­lies are re­ferred to ap­pro­pri­ate gov­ern­ment agen­cies, in­clud­ing the Min­istry of the Peo­ple and Com­mu­ni­ty Po­lice, for coun­selling and train­ing sup­port.

Al­ter­na­tive Ed­u­ca­tion: Stu­dents aged 12–16 are rec­om­mend­ed to Ser­vol, while males aged 16 and over can en­roll in the Mil­i­tary-Led Aca­d­e­m­ic Train­ing Pro­gramme (Mi­LAT).

Dowlath not­ed that the min­istry is re­view­ing the Na­tion­al School Code of Con­duct and the Na­tion­al School Dis­ci­pline Ma­trix to strike a bal­ance be­tween dis­ci­pline en­force­ment and struc­tured, com­pas­sion­ate re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion. He high­light­ed the in­tro­duc­tion of school-based po­lice of­fi­cers, em­pha­sis­ing that dis­ci­pli­nary mea­sures are im­ple­ment­ed along­side sup­port mech­a­nisms.

On ques­tions from Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Melanie Roberts-Radg­man about re­ha­bil­i­tat­ing stu­dents placed in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, Dowlath stressed, “Stu­dents who en­gage in vi­o­lent con­duct must face firm con­se­quences, but they must al­so not be aban­doned.”

He out­lined four key ini­tia­tives to sup­port these stu­dents:

Col­lab­o­ra­tion with Na­tion­al Pro­grammes: Part­ner­ships with the Min­istries of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty and Sports al­low stu­dents re­moved from the school sys­tem to par­tic­i­pate in Mi­LAT, YTEPP, and Ser­vol, pro­vid­ing lit­er­a­cy, life skills, vo­ca­tion­al de­vel­op­ment, dis­ci­pline, and re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion.

Al­ter­na­tive Ed­u­ca­tion Path­ways: Stu­dents of com­pul­so­ry school age are re­ferred to al­ter­na­tive in­sti­tu­tions and re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­grammes to con­tin­ue re­ceiv­ing struc­tured in­struc­tion and guid­ance.

Cross-Min­istry Co­or­di­na­tion: The Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry works with the Min­istries of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty, the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty, and Pro­ba­tion Ser­vices to en­sure con­ti­nu­ity of ed­u­ca­tion and psy­choso­cial sup­port. Clin­i­cal and be­hav­iour­al ser­vices are avail­able through Child Guid­ance Clin­ics.

Rein­te­gra­tion Sup­port: Up­on re­lease or com­ple­tion of their sen­tences, stu­dents are eval­u­at­ed for re-en­try in­to al­ter­na­tive ed­u­ca­tion or vo­ca­tion­al pro­grammes, en­sur­ing they are nev­er per­ma­nent­ly ex­clud­ed from learn­ing or per­son­al de­vel­op­ment.

Jus­tice Min­is­ter De­vesh Ma­haraj pro­vid­ed up­dates on po­lice-in­volved shoot­ings in To­ba­go dur­ing April–May, in­volv­ing Ron­nelle Mar­celle of Bethel and Frank Alan Sandy of Mt St George.

Re­gard­ing the Mar­celle in­ci­dent, Ma­haraj said the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) con­firmed that the TTPS in­ves­tiga­tive file, wit­ness state­ments, video footage, post-mortem cer­tifi­cate, re­ports, pho­tographs, and doc­u­men­ta­tion were ob­tained. How­ev­er, some in­for­ma­tion re­mains out­stand­ing, in­clud­ing ad­di­tion­al state­ments and re­ports.

For the Sandy case, the PCA ob­tained ex­tracts and records from the Scar­bor­ough Po­lice Sta­tion and Scar­bor­ough CID. In­ter­views were con­duct­ed, and wit­ness state­ments col­lect­ed. Cer­tain in­for­ma­tion re­mains out­stand­ing, in­clud­ing ad­di­tion­al state­ments, re­ports, pho­tographs, com­plet­ed firearms test­ing forms, and the TTPS in­ves­tiga­tive file, which has been re­quest­ed by the PCA for au­dit.