It’s been a lit­tle over a year—Oc­to­ber 31, 2022—since video footage sur­faced on so­cial me­dia and showed pupils of Rose Hill RC Pri­ma­ry School tak­ing cov­er while ri­val gang mem­bers fired rapid gun­shots out­side their school.

What did not go vi­ral was the im­me­di­ate in­ter­ven­tion by mem­bers of the Vic­tim and Wit­ness Sup­port Unit (VW­SU) who be­gan work­ing with the af­fect­ed pupils through a pro­gramme ti­tled Who’s Writ­ing Your Sto­ry: From Fear to Free­dom.

“One hun­dred per cent of the par­tic­i­pants here to­day know the sound of gun­fire, 100 per cent of the par­tic­i­pants here to­day have ex­pe­ri­enced run­ning, duck­ing and seek­ing for cov­er at the ex­plo­sion of these sounds, 75 per cent of our par­tic­i­pants have lost a loved one or a close fam­i­ly mem­ber to gun vi­o­lence,” VW­SU Op­er­a­tions Su­per­vi­sor Janelle Se­bastien-Reyes said dur­ing a grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny yes­ter­day at the Po­lice Re­tirees Build­ing, Besson Street, Port-of-Spain.

Se­bastien-Reyes asked the pupils to promise her that they would be­gin every day know­ing that they were not the de­f­i­n­i­tion of some­body else’s pen. She asked the young ones to promise that they would prac­tise lov­ing them­selves and their com­mu­ni­ty.

“I want you to promise us that you will prac­tise be­ing the au­thor of your faith ... that you are in charge of your des­tiny,” she said.

“I’m writ­ing my sto­ry!!!” the pupils shout­ed when Se­bastien-Reyes asked them who was writ­ing their sto­ry.

Min­is­ter re­spon­si­ble for Gen­der and Child Af­fairs Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy echoed Se­bastien-Reyes’ words of en­cour­age­ment and even shed a tear af­ter lit­tle Zo­ri­ah Fer­gu­son’s vale­dic­to­ri­an speech. The min­is­ter com­mend­ed the teach­ers and par­ents of Rose Hill for do­ing a good job with the pupils.

“I felt in­spired ... I felt con­fi­dent that Trinidad and To­ba­go is in good hands,” she said.

She added that the Gov­ern­ment is do­ing every­thing to sup­port the youths through pro­grammes, clubs and groups but told par­ents not to be de­pen­dent on that.

“Mum­mies and dad­dies, we have to take full re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for en­sur­ing that we lay a sol­id foun­da­tion, we cyar (sic) wait on the Gov­ern­ment,” she said.

Quot­ing Bu­ju Ban­ton’s It’s Not An Easy Road, Web­ster-Roy told the par­ents that they have to get up, recog­nise that they have work to do and do it. She told them that they have to be strong every day for their chil­dren.

But these were not the on­ly mu­si­cal lyrics used by a speak­er yes­ter­day, as Zo­ri­ah be­gan her vale­dic­to­ri­an pre­sen­ta­tion with lyrics from Singing San­dra’s Voic­es from De Ghet­to to jux­ta­pose their ex­pe­ri­ence last year on Oc­to­ber 31.

Re­gard­ing where they are now, the Stan­dard Five pupil said she ap­pre­ci­at­ed the mo­ti­va­tion­al sto­ries and deep con­ver­sa­tions the VW­SU of­fi­cers had with the group.

“They al­ways brought a pos­i­tive per­spec­tive through many medi­ums and re­mind­ed us that no mat­ter our cir­cum­stances we are the nar­ra­tors of our own sto­ries,” Zo­ri­ah said.

The pupil al­so thanked the of­fi­cers for their ef­forts and said a sto­ry that start­ed a bit dim came to a fruit­ful end.

The vale­dic­to­ri­an belt­ed out R Kel­ly’s The World’s Great­est to sym­bol­ise the tran­si­tion the pupils have made.