Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) leader Kam­la Per­sad- Bisses­sar says her gov­ern­ment will in­tro­duce an anony­mous an­ti-bul­ly­ing app to al­low stu­dents to re­port in­ci­dents.

Par­ent pa­trols will al­so be im­ple­ment­ed in all schools un­der her watch.

"This is where a par­ent of each en­rolled stu­dent must spend at least one full day at the school of their child, work­ing with deans, teach­ers, the TTPS, and stu­dent sup­port ser­vices to main­tain dis­ci­pline. Par­ents should see what teach­ers have to deal with dai­ly," she added.

Her com­ment came even as the is­sue of school vi­o­lence shot in­to the lime­light again last week, fol­low­ing an in­ci­dent in two Moru­ga Sec­ondary School stu­dents were seen in a vi­ral video at­tack­ing an­oth­er stu­dent as she was be­ing shield­ed by a teacher. The two fe­male stu­dents have since been sus­pend­ed.

The video footage of the vi­o­lent at­tack shows a male teacher pro­tect­ing a fe­male stu­dent from the two fe­male stu­dents who used a broom­stick, desks and even a dust­bin as weapons to try to get to the stu­dent.

This was the sec­ond in­ci­dent of vi­o­lence at the school this year. In Jan­u­ary, a male stu­dent and a teacher were al­so in­volved in a fight at the school.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said as part of its ini­tia­tive to tack­le school vi­o­lence, the UNC will al­so fund faith-based com­mu­ni­ty men­tor­ing and guid­ance pro­grammes.

"Each com­mu­ni­ty has a place of wor­ship, which should be open every day af­ter school from 2.30 pm to 6.30 pm, as well as on week­ends, to serve as a com­mu­ni­ty home­work and ac­tiv­i­ty cen­tre."

She added, "A UNC gov­ern­ment will pro­vide fund­ing for meals, stu­dent sup­plies and pay a stipend to staff who can be drawn from the con­gre­ga­tions, com­mu­ni­ty el­ders, vol­un­teer teach­ers and par­ents. This way, we can in­te­grate the par­ent, school, com­mu­ni­ty and re­li­gious bod­ies in­to chil­dren’s lives.

"Through the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­istry, all lo­cal gov­ern­ment coun­cil­lors will be re­quired to over­see the for­ma­tion of a com­mu­ni­ty sup­port coun­cil in each plan­ning dis­trict of their elec­toral dis­trict. These coun­cils will act like the old ‘vil­lage coun­cils’ to pro­vide guid­ance, men­tor­ship, and sup­port to chil­dren, young adults, and par­ents, as well as serve as a di­rect link to po­lice/gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives."