Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

There are con­cerns about an in­crease in school vi­o­lence, as over two dozen school safe­ty of­fi­cers are out of work af­ter their con­tracts were not re­newed. This has led to a short­age of of­fi­cers at schools around the coun­try.

Speak­ing un­der the con­di­tion of anonymi­ty due to a fear of vic­tim­i­sa­tion, some of­fi­cers said their con­tracts with the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion (MoE) ex­pired on Feb­ru­ary 2, 2024, with no word on their re­newals.

Ac­cord­ing to the MoE’s web­site, these of­fi­cers who are post­ed at Gov­ern­ment-run sec­ondary schools are tasked with, “con­tribut­ing to the es­tab­lish­ment and main­te­nance of a safe, tran­quil and dis­ci­plined school en­vi­ron­ment and by ex­ten­sion, the com­mu­ni­ty.”

Guardian Me­dia was re­li­ably in­formed that their du­ties en­com­pass in­ter­ven­ing dur­ing school fights, mon­i­tor­ing stu­dent in­dis­ci­pline, re­spond­ing to emer­gen­cies, pa­trolling the school com­pound and con­duct­ing a risk as­sess­ment of dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tions in and around the school.

A for­mer of­fi­cer who is await­ing con­tract re­new­al said, “Every morn­ing we check stu­dents’ bags for con­tra­band and weapons. Scan­ners are al­so em­ployed in this re­gard. How­ev­er, if the safe­ty of­fi­cer is not present, the MTS Se­cu­ri­ty will not car­ry out that search. This re­sults in stu­dents be­ing em­bold­ened to bring what­ev­er they want. Al­so, at this check­point, the safe­ty of­fi­cer en­forces the school rules re­sult­ing in more ef­fec­tive and ef­fi­cient dis­ci­pline through­out the school day. With­out the safe­ty of­fi­cer, all the school rules fall down.”

Their im­por­tance is not lost on the Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA). When con­tact­ed, pres­i­dent Mar­tin Lum Kin said, “School safe­ty of­fi­cers form a vi­tal link in the ar­se­nal of se­cu­ri­ty at sec­ondary schools. They would sup­port the se­cu­ri­ty and the Dean of Dis­ci­pline. So, with the rise of vi­o­lence and in­dis­ci­pline in some of these schools it is nec­es­sary to have the full com­ple­ment of the school safe­ty and health of­fi­cers.”

Lum Kin added, “Last year, we had that sit­u­a­tion, and we would have reached out to the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, and they in­formed us that they were in the process of re­new­ing the con­tracts and they would have as­sured us at the end of last year that all con­tracts were re­newed. Not con­sid­er­ing there will be some con­tracts up for re­new­al this year. So, we nev­er fol­lowed up be­cause the last in­for­ma­tion we got is that these con­tracts will be re­newed.”

Guardian Me­dia was in­formed that at some sec­ondary schools, teach­ers have in­di­cat­ed their un­will­ing­ness to teach in an en­vi­ron­ment with­out a safe­ty of­fi­cer present.

How­ev­er, the cur­rent short­age of safe­ty of­fi­cers may be ad­dressed soon. Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter, Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly told Guardian Me­dia that, “con­tracts are be­ing re­newed cur­rent­ly”.

How­ev­er, the min­is­ter added, “While safe­ty of­fi­cers do play an im­por­tant role in mit­i­gat­ing school vi­o­lence, the facts don’t ful­ly sup­port their as­ser­tions, as a num­ber of the in­ci­dents are tak­ing place out­side of the school com­pound. We have asked the Com­mu­ni­ty Po­lice and the TTPS to in­crease pa­trols out­side of schools at the end of the school day, to clamp down on loi­ter­ing and fights.”