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In time, the two surviving 14-year-olds who were injured during a brutal gun attack in Guanapo, Arima, on Thursday, may have to rejoin the school system.
But clinical traumatologist and youth development specialist Hanif Benjamin believes that if they do not get the relevant psychological assistance they need, historical perspectives show that children can venture into a very tumultuous life.
“Trauma is very personal, their responses can be both different,” Benjamin said.
Speaking with Guardian Media following the vicious gun attack on the Peterkin family in Arima, Benjamin said these children can be resilient but many either experience behavioural, emotional, or substance issues or move into gangs to be protected.
He feared this pattern of behaviour could also make its way into the school system.
Benjamin said this happens because the child spends most of their time at school and they are stimulated by the environment.
“Someone may say something to them that will remind them of their circumstances, if the teacher shouts at them, or someone calls them fat and ugly, they cannot park it up in a corner,” he said.
Linking the current crime situation in this country to the violence seen at schools, Benjamin said he believes everything in a society affects a child.
“Our children grow and develop what they see,” he said.
The traumatologist said the adolescent brain is still developing and these violent incidents interrupt its development, so the brain has to protect itself.
Restorative practices at school
Meanwhile, the issues of youth violence and violence at schools were also raised at the Ministry of Education’s Edu Talk held at El Dorado West Secondary on Wednesday evening.
Several solutions were presented across eight strategic areas, including homeschooling and human resource development. Curbing fights is also part of the education policy for 2023-2027.
“We recognised there are students coming from different backgrounds, with different challenges and some of them are unable to deal with conflict successfully,” Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said.
Gadsby-Dolly said when she hears the story behind some of the viral school fights, she understands how challenged the students are.
She added that the ministry began restorative practices at 11 schools and they will be implemented in the 26 schools earmarked for the programmes.
Manager of the Student Support Services Division, Dr Ayinka Nurse-Carrington, said they understand that students, teachers and parents are frustrated but said the restorative practices will give all parties a voice.
“We tend to not listen,” she said.
Nurse-Carrington said they have trained over 400 people in restorative practices (May-July 2023) in an attempt to ensure this part of the policy is successful.
“I say practices because we are using the school system, we accustomed hearing restorative justice but that is using the criminal system,” she said.
She said this practice will help rebuild schools, families and communities, and students need to also understand accountability.
“You have hurt your friends, you’ve also hurt you’re classmates, you’ve hurt your teacher, you’ve hurt your parents by doing your infraction,” she explained.
She said this practice will also encourage students to reflect and use “I” message, for example ‘I feel sad, hurt or frustrated instead of I vex.’
Nurse-Carrington said the restorative practitioners will do exercises like restorative circles.
“We also engaged 110 students, peer mediators, so that they are part of the restorative process,” she said.
First Vice President of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA), Adesh Dwarika, said the ministry must do a greater analysis of school violence and violence affecting young people. He lamented the lack of data.
Dwarika added that during the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of students who came from underprivileged homes and communities had to get jobs to help their households.
“Some of them did not come back to school as a result of that and those who came back more than likely during the period they would be further disadvantaged,” he explained.