RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

De­spite Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly’s de­nial of gangs at Pleas­antville Sec­ondary School, sev­er­al par­ents have pre­sent­ed ev­i­dence that gangs are ac­tive with­in the school, show­ing so­cial me­dia posts from stu­dents them­selves as well as re­ports from an of­fi­cial school chat which has dis­cussed the prob­lem.

The par­ents claim school of­fi­cials are cov­er­ing up the gang re­ports to avoid neg­a­tive pub­lic­i­ty and main­tain spon­sor­ships for the sports teams.

Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day ob­tained a What­sApp mes­sage from an of­fi­cial school chat con­firm­ing the ex­is­tence of two groups iden­ti­fied as the Gua­va Gang and the Camo Gang. Ac­cord­ing to the mes­sage, the groups con­sist of Form 2 stu­dents. Six stu­dents were named as mem­bers of the Camo Gang, while one stu­dent was iden­ti­fied as part of the Gua­va Gang.

The mes­sage fur­ther stat­ed that Camo Gang mem­bers gath­er above the Form 1 block, while the Gua­va Gang con­gre­gates near “2T.”

“Clash­es be­tween the groups oc­cur above the Form 1 block and on the stair­well lead­ing to 2T,” the mes­sage said.

The Gua­va Gang is re­port­ed­ly iden­ti­fied by the go­ril­la sounds they make, and they al­so cre­ate “diss tracks” aimed at each oth­er, shar­ing them on In­sta­gram.

Posts pro­vid­ed to Guardian Me­dia from stu­dents’ ac­counts in­clud­ed state­ments like “Ful­ly Gua­va,” “We doh wah no Camo,” and “Nock it on Camo” with fire emo­jis. Oth­er mes­sages, filled with pro­fan­i­ty, ref­er­enced the two groups.

Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day for­ward­ed the mes­sages to the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter, who had ear­li­er said the prin­ci­pal, a dean of dis­ci­pline and a T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion rep­re­sen­ta­tive had all de­nied the pres­ence of gangs in the school.

Af­ter an ex­clu­sive re­port on the is­sue ear­li­er this week, a par­ent shared a voice note from an­oth­er par­ent claim­ing her son was be­ing tar­get­ed for sup­pos­ed­ly tar­nish­ing the school’s im­age. In the voice note, the dis­traught moth­er said her son was sus­pend­ed for a week from foot­ball be­cause an of­fi­cial blamed him for caus­ing spon­sors to pull out.

“My son was bul­lied in his class­room by a Form 2 stu­dent. He was sent home even though he did noth­ing wrong. The bul­ly put him against the wall, and I am go­ing to the min­istry about this. I nev­er con­tact­ed CNC3 News but they are say­ing my son is giv­ing the school a bad name,” the par­ent said in the voice note shared with oth­er par­ents.

The school of­fi­cial de­nied the al­le­ga­tion, how­ev­er, say­ing the child was sus­pend­ed for play­ing on the field.

Sev­er­al par­ents who spoke with Guardian Me­dia said that cov­er­ing up the gang is­sue would on­ly lead to greater prob­lems in the fu­ture.

Guardian Me­dia was al­so pro­vid­ed with an email sent to the Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry, the Vic­to­ria Ed­u­ca­tion Dis­trict and the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter on Oc­to­ber 8, a day be­fore Guardian Me­dia ex­clu­sive­ly broke the sto­ry. In the email, a par­ent de­tailed grow­ing vi­o­lence at the school, claim­ing Form One pupils were be­ing ex­tort­ed and bul­lied. The par­ent not­ed a re­luc­tance by staff and par­ents to re­port bul­ly­ing and called for an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to threats from these groups, as well as racial ten­sions with­in the school.

The act­ing prin­ci­pal has an­nounced a PTA meet­ing for Wednes­day (Oc­to­ber 16) to dis­cuss the par­ents/guardians’ con­cerns.

Min­is­ter Gads­by-Dol­ly did not re­spond to ques­tions sent to her yes­ter­day. How­ev­er, speak­ing in Par­lia­ment dur­ing the Bud­get de­bate, she said more guid­ance coun­sel­lors and so­cial work­ers have been hired to deal with school is­sues.

ACP: Bul­lies can face crim­i­nal charges

Mean­while, the As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice for South and Cen­tral ACP Wayne Mys­tar urged par­ents to re­port cas­es of bul­ly­ing to both the po­lice and the school ad­min­is­tra­tion.

“The act of bul­ly­ing can re­sult in sev­er­al crim­i­nal of­fences in­clud­ing as­sault and bat­tery, lar­ce­ny, ex­tor­tion, rob­bery with vi­o­lence, and rob­bery with ag­gra­va­tion. It can lead to lay­ing of charges so I ad­vise par­ents that if your child is be­ing bul­lied come to the po­lice and re­port these acts and we will be in­ves­ti­gat­ing those mat­ters in a mean­ing­ful man­ner,” ACP Mys­tar said.