rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt
Counselling is to be offered to six Palo Seco Secondary School students who were filmed engaged in lap dancing in their uniforms at the school on Wednesday.
Videos taken by other students have now been making the rounds on social media.
The videos show two female students, including one with her shirt top opened while she wore a white blouse below, performing lap dances for male students.
There were other students around who could be heard and seen encouraging them on.
According to an official at the school, the incident with the Form Four students occurred between the fourth and fifth periods. The official said it began with one girl giving the dance.
Investigations, the official said, revealed the girl told a friend to record the incident saying: “I want to be famous.”
The girl who incited the incident, the official said, will be referred to the Guidance Officer IV for the St Patrick Education District to address the behaviour. The other students involved, the official said, will also be counselled on their behaviour within the school.
The official lamented the trend of young people recording themselves doing outrageous things for social media with the aim of becoming famous.
“They don’t understand the difference between good fame and bad fame,” they said.
The official explained the school is focused on getting to the root of the behaviours and remedying it.
The incident comes a month after secondary school students were allowed to return to physical classes since the pandemic began.
It also comes days after unvaccinated students were allowed to join their fully vaccinated counterparts in the classroom. Since the return to physical classes, there have been COVID-19 outbreaks in three schools in south Trinidad; Shiva Boys’ Hindu College, Iere High School, and Princes Town East Secondary.