RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Yet an­oth­er re­port of gang ac­tiv­i­ty in schools has sur­faced, this time at the Pe­nal Sec­ondary School, where at least two chil­dren have stopped at­tend­ing class­es due to threats and at­tacks. 

As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Wayne Mys­tar has been in­formed of the al­leged pres­ence of the Rankers gang at the school and has man­dat­ed a team to in­ves­ti­gate.

Par­ents claimed that stu­dents who ex­posed the gang, which iden­ti­fies it­self with tat­toos, are now re­ceiv­ing threats.

Two par­ents spoke out about the gang ac­tiv­i­ty, while a third came for­ward late yes­ter­day. All of them re­quest­ed anonymi­ty, though they agreed to make of­fi­cial re­ports to the po­lice.

Aside from the stu­dents who have stopped at­tend­ing school, par­ents said oth­ers are seek­ing trans­fers, and at least one child is set to mi­grate. They claimed the gang is led by a Form Five stu­dent who has al­leged­ly been ter­ror­iz­ing fel­low stu­dents and teach­ers.

The par­ent of a Form Five stu­dent said she has no choice but to make arrange­ments to send her child abroad out of fear.

“My daugh­ter is not safe, and we are very con­cerned. The teach­ers told me it’s at my own risk if I send her to school. They said I could re­quest an MTS guard to walk her through the com­pound, but even when she comes to school for SBA work, she has to do it and leave im­me­di­ate­ly. The prin­ci­pal ad­mit­ted the gang is hold­ing the school hostage,” the par­ent claimed.

She said weapons, drugs, and pills are re­port­ed­ly be­ing passed to low­er-form stu­dents with­in the school, adding to the il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ties on the com­pound.

Her daugh­ter, speak­ing un­der the con­di­tion of anonymi­ty with per­mis­sion from her moth­er, said she was ter­ri­fied of re­turn­ing to school.

“I am re­al­ly scared and it’s un­fair. (Name called) tells me to sit in her of­fice, but the oth­ers can walk around freely. There are more than six gangs here, and it’s un­safe. These gangs, es­pe­cial­ly the Rankers, are in con­trol of the school. Even the se­cu­ri­ty guards can’t tell them any­thing,” the stu­dent al­leged.

She added that she didn’t un­der­stand why the school hasn’t banned tat­toos, as this is what iden­ti­fies the gang.

“All of them are un­der this one gang leader. A lot of chil­dren fol­low him. About 25 stu­dents have been re­cruit­ed un­der the Rankers,” she claimed.

The stu­dent added that some gang mem­bers had al­ready been sus­pend­ed, but this made no sense.

“Even if they are sus­pend­ed, they still come to school and hide in the class­rooms. Oth­ers wait out­side the school gate. I am afraid to walk to meet my moth­er. I could get stabbed out­side the school,” the child said look­ing de­spon­dent. She said drugs and knives are brought in­to the com­pound, and there are no prop­er checks.

Mean­while, the par­ent of a Form One pupil al­so claimed that drugs were be­ing brought in­to the school. The par­ent said in the third week of school, her 12-year-old son was pushed down, sprain­ing his hand. 

She claimed that last Thurs­day, a group of stu­dents held down her son and tried to force him to drink a bot­tle of juice with 20 Lo­motil tablets. Lo­motil is used to treat di­ar­rhoea. 

“We all know what would have hap­pened if he drank that,” she said. Since that in­ci­dent, her son has not re­turned to school. The wor­ried moth­er added: “This is on­ly five weeks in­to the school term, and I do not want my child to go back. He is scared for his life. He keeps ask­ing, ‘Mom­my, if I go to school on Mon­day, what will they do next?’ I am scared for him, and he is scared for him­self.”

‘Ap­peal to stu­dents who ha­rass stu­dents to de­sist’

Guardian Me­dia reached out to Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly and pro­vid­ed a de­tailed re­port of the par­ents’ claims.

She said: “Once again, there has been a de­nial by the prin­ci­pal of gangs op­er­at­ing at Pe­nal Sec­ondary. The stu­dent whose name was men­tioned does have a dis­ci­pli­nary his­to­ry, but the al­le­ga­tion of gangs op­er­at­ing in the school has been de­nied.

“There was an in­ci­dent out­side of the school with a stu­dent, which was re­port­ed to the po­lice, and that is be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed.”

Pres­i­dent of the T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion, Mar­tin Lum Kin, said he has al­so ini­ti­at­ed an in­ves­ti­ga­tion and will re­quest a re­port.

When con­tact­ed, the pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of Par­ent-Teacher As­so­ci­a­tions, Wal­ter Stew­art called on the po­lice to con­duct a thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

“If there is any truth to the re­ports, let the chips fall where they may. We con­sid­er schools to be sa­cred places, safe havens, and we want our chil­dren to at­tend school and learn well. No par­ent wants their child to be abused, in­jured or be­rat­ed. We ap­peal to stu­dents who con­tin­u­al­ly ha­rass and tor­ment law-abid­ing stu­dents to de­sist from these acts, which are caus­ing trau­ma and dis­as­ter,” Stew­art said.