KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er

@guardian.co.tt

Like 15-year-old St Stephen’s Col­lege stu­dent Jay­den Lalchan, Princes Town MP Bar­ry Padarath says he too is a vic­tim of bul­ly­ing.

Four days af­ter the Form Four stu­dent took his own life fol­low­ing claims by his par­ents of years of al­leged bul­ly­ing at school, Padarath yes­ter­day dis­closed the dark side of what tran­spires in the Par­lia­ment.

While mak­ing his con­tri­bu­tions to the Bud­get de­bate, an im­pas­sioned Padarath spoke out against the crime, ac­cus­ing mem­bers on the oth­er side of the bench of bul­ly­ing him and his col­leagues.

Like school, he said the Par­lia­ment is sup­posed to be a safe place but said that has not been the case for Op­po­si­tion MPs.

He re­vealed he’s even con­tem­plat­ed sui­cide.

Padarath said, “I can­not tell you that I too have ex­pe­ri­enced what Jay­den en­dured. I can­not tell you that when I en­tered these hal­lowed walls, I too ex­pect­ed that this would be a safe place. In­stead, from our na­tion’s schools to the na­tion’s par­lia­ment, bul­ly­ing, tor­ment and tor­ture has been nor­malised, and I make no apolo­gies for that. I’ve seen it hap­pen with my col­league from Ch­agua­nas East (Van­dana Mo­hit). I’ve seen it hap­pen with my col­league from Barataria/San Juan (Sad­dam Ho­sein). Every sin­gle col­league on this side of the bench has faced that tor­ment and that bul­ly­ing, and I will make no apolo­gies for point­ing out my col­leagues from across the floor.”

He added, “The death of 15-year-old Jay­den Lalchan has not on­ly rocked Princes Town, it has shak­en all of Trinidad and To­ba­go. A school is meant to be a safe place, a safe haven for our chil­dren to learn and de­vel­op. In­stead, for Jay­den, it be­came a place where he was bul­lied, tor­ment­ed, tor­tured, hunt­ed and preyed up­on like an an­i­mal. That ex­pe­ri­ence for four years cost­ed (sic) Jay­den his life... What has oc­curred in our na­tion’s schools are a di­rect re­sult of what is be­ing mir­rored in the high­est of­fices in our land, brava­do, tox­i­c­i­ty, vul­gar­i­ty.”

The MP ac­cused Gov­ern­ment of fail­ing Lalchan, as he claimed noth­ing was done to pro­tect him from years of be­ing tor­tured at school.

Al­so plac­ing blame on Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly, Padarath said she’s re­fused to ac­cept re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for pro­grammes, plans and poli­cies meant to pre­vent bul­ly­ing in schools.

He al­so said Gov­ern­ment is starv­ing the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go (CATT) of re­sources and fund­ing to put sys­tems in place to pro­tect the na­tion’s chil­dren. Ac­cord­ing to Padarath, the CATT con­tin­ues to be un­der-re­sourced and un­der­staffed.

He said fund­ing for the St Mary’s Chil­dren’s Home has been cut by $300,000 and the St Do­minic’s Home cut by $200,000.

“The school sys­tem failed Jay­den. The TTPS failed Jay­den. The laws of Trinidad and To­ba­go has failed Jay­den. The $66 bil­lion spent in ed­u­ca­tion over the past 10 years has failed Jay­den. The over $100 bil­lion spent in na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty has failed Jay­den. Noth­ing that we do here to­day will bring back the child ... The Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty, the most crit­i­cal com­po­nent to the pro­tec­tion of chil­dren, has been cut by $5 mil­lion un­der the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter,” he said.

Padarath al­so slammed Gads­by-Dol­ly for ig­nor­ing his calls. He said fol­low­ing news of Lalchan’s death, he made at­tempts to reach out to her but to no avail.

He said she even­tu­al­ly re­spond­ed via text but de­scribed her as lack­ing com­pas­sion.