JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) Mar­tin pres­i­dent Lum Kin says the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry has iden­ti­fied 80 high-risk schools that will po­ten­tial­ly need po­lice of­fi­cers in the new term.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia hours af­ter Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Ju­nior Ben­jamin met with Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion of­fi­cials yes­ter­day on the lo­gis­tics of po­lice de­ploy­ment at schools, Lum Kin said there are 20 pri­ma­ry schools and 60 sec­ondary schools that may have a po­lice pres­ence.

Nei­ther he nor Ben­jamin was able to iden­ti­fy the schools when asked.

Lum Kin said the num­ber break­down was giv­en to him by Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath.

Lum Kin said, “I know we al­so spoke about schools that need­ed tar­get­ed in­ter­ven­tion as it re­lates to cur­ricu­lum de­liv­ery and per­for­mance. I do know that he men­tioned 80 schools, and he did break it down to 60 sec­ondary and 20 pri­ma­ry schools. So, I be­lieve it could be in re­la­tion to those schools that are deemed high-risk.”

Al­so speak­ing on the is­sue, Ben­jamin said while the min­istry iden­ti­fied 80 schools, po­lice had 70 in mind but did not pro­vide a break­down. He said one of the top­ics ad­dressed was the is­sue of po­lice of­fi­cers pos­si­bly be­ing armed.

“We are go­ing to en­sure that all of­fi­cers, again, have all the nec­es­sary tools that are nec­es­sary for them to be able to do their jobs. We are go­ing to put the nec­es­sary things in place. Again, we con­tin­ue to look at best prac­tise. We’re go­ing to let that lead the way. And we’re go­ing to be, again, iden­ti­fy­ing the school, analysing the schools.”

The is­sue of armed po­lice of­fi­cers was not sup­port­ed by Lum Kin or Na­tion­al Coun­cil of Par­ent Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Wal­ter Stew­art.

Lum Kin said TTUTA has al­ways ad­vised against hav­ing armed per­sons in the na­tion’s schools.

“If the po­lice of­fi­cers, law en­force­ment of­fi­cers, are present as a mat­ter of de­ter­rence, and a mat­ter of bring­ing some sem­blance of dis­ci­pline by hav­ing vi­su­al­ly as­signed per­sons, then we will sup­port that ini­tia­tive,” Lum Kin said.

Stew­art said the as­so­ci­a­tion ini­tial­ly en­dorsed the pro­pos­al to de­ploy po­lice of­fi­cers in schools on the premise that harsh times de­serve harsh mea­sures. How­ev­er, he said the as­so­ci­a­tion is con­cerned about the need for armed po­lice of­fi­cers in schools.

“The pres­ence of armed po­lice of­fi­cers at our schools gives the per­cep­tion that there is im­mi­nent dan­ger and the im­pres­sion to par­ents, teach­ers, stu­dents and an­cil­lary staff is that vi­o­lence is at hand. This can lead to stress, re­duced con­cen­tra­tion and have all the stake­hold­ers on edge as to some­thing is go­ing to hap­pen. We want the au­thor­i­ties to re­view this de­ci­sion or this pro­pos­al to have armed po­lice of­fi­cers in our schools,” he said.

Ben­jamin added that some 95 spe­cial re­serve po­lice of­fi­cers are to grad­u­ate to­day with spe­cif­ic train­ing for de­ploy­ment in schools.

“I con­sult­ed with the se­nior su­per­in­ten­dent in charge of the po­lice acad­e­my, who as­sured me that the nec­es­sary train­ing was done. We looked at things like de-es­ca­la­tion, how they’re go­ing to deal with the youths, the dif­fer­ent be­hav­iour­al styles that is need­ed,” Ben­jamin said.

“I know that the of­fi­cers are trained, they’re ready, and we are go­ing to just de­ploy them ac­cord­ing­ly. We want to make sure that at the end of the day, that the de­ploy­ment is such that at the end, all the schools have the nec­es­sary man­pow­er to en­sure ef­fec­tive­ness and bring that lev­el of dis­ci­pline and se­cu­ri­ty in all schools.”

Lum Kin said the po­lice pres­ence should be tem­po­rary un­til the var­i­ous in­sti­tu­tions work­ing with the min­istry can have oth­er tar­get­ed in­ter­ven­tion.

“TTUTA has al­ways made the point that there needs to be a mul­ti-pronged ap­proach in deal­ing with vi­o­lence and in­dis­ci­pline, be­cause schools are a mi­cro­cosm and in some as­pects, a re­flec­tion of what is tak­ing place in so­ci­ety. So, if we have to tack­le vi­o­lence and in­dis­ci­pline in the school, there must be in­ter­ven­tions in the com­mu­ni­ty and in the home.”