With the vi­o­lence in the na­tion’s schools re­main­ing a ma­jor con­cern, the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice will be tack­ling the is­sue head-on through its Con­flict Res­o­lu­tion Car­a­van.

The ini­tia­tive will be done in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Com­mu­ni­ty Con­flict Res­o­lu­tion Cen­tre.

Top­ics to be cov­ered will in­clude con­flict de-es­ca­la­tion strate­gies; ef­fec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion; peer res­o­lu­tion prac­tices; man­ag­ing emo­tions and self and prob­lem-solv­ing strate­gies.

Of­fi­cer Michael Lazarus praised the ini­tia­tive say­ing it is “an ex­cep­tion­al­ly bril­liant, well thought out out­reach ef­fort to ed­u­cate the school stu­dents.”

He said the pro­gramme has borne suc­cess be­fore when of­fi­cers vis­it­ed schools in the North East­ern Di­vi­sion and spoke with stu­dents. Lazarus said of­fi­cers were al­so able to get through to stu­dents in the Bel­mont area.

“It was great fun for every­one and no prob­lems. As a po­lice in­struc­tor, while at the Bel­mont (Po­lice) Sta­tion with trainees, I had the priv­i­lege to speak to mis­be­hav­ing stu­dents at a school next to the Bel­mont Po­lice Sta­tion—that al­so had pos­i­tive re­sults when no one thought it could hap­pen. And, as I re­call, the then prin­ci­pal and staff won­dered how I was able to reach the kids so ef­fec­tive­ly. My re­sponse was that it is pure­ly based up­on my out­reach method of first iden­ti­fy­ing and mak­ing con­nec­tions be­fore con­demn­ing and judg­ing. But it worked quite well then and I was de­light­ed to have that role,” Lazarus said.

Pres­i­dent of the T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) Mar­tin Lum Kin said they will sup­port any ini­tia­tive which could lead to the end of the vi­o­lence and in­dis­ci­pline that is be­ing demon­strat­ed through­out the na­tion’s schools.

“We be­lieve that con­flict res­o­lu­tion can play a key role in re­duc­ing the amount of in­ci­dents that we have with­in our schools and we are hope­ful that the Com­mu­ni­ty Con­flict Res­o­lu­tion Cen­tre would con­sid­er im­ple­ment­ing this pro­gramme with­in our pri­ma­ry schools through­out T&T,” the TTUTA pres­i­dent said.