RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca­s­ookraj@guardian.co.tt

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly is now over­see­ing an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to al­le­ga­tions of bul­ly­ing at AS­JA Girls’ Col­lege in San Fer­nan­do in­volv­ing a Form Four stu­dent.

The stu­dent’s moth­er is now con­tem­plat­ing le­gal ac­tion due to con­cerns over mis­han­dling of the sit­u­a­tion. The par­ent has re­port­ed on­go­ing ha­rass­ment of her daugh­ter, which she claims has been ig­nored or mis­han­dled by school of­fi­cials.

The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion (MOE) is cur­rent­ly work­ing to de­ter­mine the facts sur­round­ing the case.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, the moth­er of the Form Four stu­dent said her daugh­ter has faced not on­ly bul­ly­ing from peers but al­so mis­treat­ment by cer­tain school staff mem­bers af­ter she raised con­cerns.

De­spite re­port­ing the in­ci­dents to the San Fer­nan­do Po­lice in Feb­ru­ary, the sit­u­a­tion re­port­ed­ly wors­ened, the moth­er said, lead­ing to health is­sues for the stu­dent and a de­cline in her aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance.

The par­ent said that her daugh­ter’s lab book went miss­ing, forc­ing her to re­do her work, which con­tributed to sig­nif­i­cant stress and long hours of study­ing. The moth­er al­so not­ed that false ru­mours cir­cu­lat­ing on­line had added to the dis­tress.

Mean­while, for­mer Par­ents En­hance­ment As­so­ci­a­tion (PEA) pres­i­dent Al­isha Mo­hammed-Stephens ex­pressed dis­sat­is­fac­tion with how the school ad­min­is­tra­tion has han­dled the com­plaints.

The stu­dent, who de­cid­ed to speak out, cit­ed the case of Jay­den Lalchan, who died by sui­cide this year be­cause of bul­ly­ing at St Stephen’s Col­lege.

She said Lalchan’s trag­ic pass­ing has had a pro­found im­pact, and has in­spired many stu­dents to “speak out to pre­vent sit­u­a­tions like this hap­pen­ing.”

Con­tact­ed for com­ment, Min­is­ter Gads­by-Dol­ly said, “This is a sen­si­tive is­sue which the MOE has re­cent­ly re­ceived re­ports on. In­ves­ti­ga­tions have re­vealed wide­ly vary­ing sto­ries on both sides. There have been meet­ings with all par­ties in­volved, and those con­tin­ued this week in an ef­fort to re­solve the mat­ter.”

She urged Guardian Me­dia to be sen­si­tive in its re­port­ing of these mat­ters. “There are chil­dren in­volved, and some­times, with the best of in­ten­tions, the mat­ters can spi­ral out of con­trol on so­cial me­dia, to the fur­ther detri­ment of the chil­dren,” she said.

Mean­while, TTUTA’s first vice pres­i­dent Adesh Dwari­ka said TTUTA was not in­formed about the bul­ly­ing al­le­ga­tions but would in­ves­ti­gate. NPTA pres­i­dent Wal­ter Stew­art de­nounced all forms of bul­ly­ing and called for an in­ves­ti­ga­tion from the min­istry.

ACP Wayne Mys­tar re­cent­ly called on par­ents to re­port is­sues of bul­ly­ing. He said bul­ly­ing can lead to crim­i­nal charges not­ing once ev­i­dence is found, per­pe­tra­tors can face the court.

Con­tact­ed for a re­sponse, school of­fi­cials did not com­ment.