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Monday, July 14, 2025

MPs, stakeholders split on CoP’s tough stance on school violence

by

Dareece Polo & Jensen La Vende
25 days ago
20250619
Former minister in the Ministry of National Security, Keith Scotland glances at members of the media as he makes his way to the Red House to attend the sitting of Parliament yesterday.

Former minister in the Ministry of National Security, Keith Scotland glances at members of the media as he makes his way to the Red House to attend the sitting of Parliament yesterday.

KERWIN PIERRE

For­mer min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Kei­th Scot­land, is urg­ing a more mea­sured and legal­ly sound ap­proach to ad­dress­ing school vi­o­lence.

He says he is con­cerned by Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro’s warn­ing on Tues­day that the TTPS would con­fine chil­dren if par­ents fail to con­trol them.

Gue­var­ro made the com­ment at the first-ever cer­e­mo­ni­al han­dover of the TTPS lead­er­ship from one com­mis­sion­er to an­oth­er while ad­dress­ing at­ten­dees at the Po­lice Acad­e­my in St James.

Se­nior Coun­sel Scot­land, how­ev­er, cau­tioned against an over­ly puni­tive ap­proach to youth, em­pha­sis­ing the im­por­tance of com­pas­sion, le­gal safe­guards, and ear­ly in­ter­ven­tion.

“When it comes to chil­dren, I have a dif­fer­ent ap­proach. There are cer­tain le­gal pa­ra­me­ters with­in which you must op­er­ate. I do not think that one in­frac­tion ought to con­demn a child for the rest of their life,” he said.

He ref­er­enced a case in the Court of Ap­peal, where the then-Chief Jus­tice Sat­nar­ine Shar­ma high­light­ed the im­por­tance of giv­ing young peo­ple a sec­ond chance.

While he ac­knowl­edged that par­ents need to take greater re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for their chil­dren’s be­hav­iour, he stressed that sys­temic and root caus­es must al­so be ad­dressed.

“Al­though I agree that par­ents ought to step up, step up with your chil­dren, step up! Don’t let it reach to some­body hav­ing to tell you we will in­ter­vene on your be­half with your child. That’s not their child, it’s your child. There’s a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and that part I agree with.”

How­ev­er, for­mer ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly wel­comed the firm stance tak­en as she em­pha­sised that po­lice in­volve­ment in school safe­ty is not a new ini­tia­tive.

Re­gard­ing Com­mis­sion­er Gue­var­ro’s firm warn­ing to par­ents, she said she does not see it as un­nec­es­sar­i­ly harsh but stressed that ac­tions must back up the rhetoric.

“I don’t think it’s nec­es­sar­i­ly too tough a stance. What I would like to see is the ac­tion be­hind it be­cause that has al­ways been the prob­lem, try­ing to en­sure that the pa­trols are kept up. For ex­am­ple, we’ll get it for two weeks and then we have to go back. So, I just want to ac­tu­al­ly see, I mean I’m a cit­i­zen, I want to see it up­held.”

Mean­while, the head of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) Mar­tin Lum Kim said he is heart­ened by Gue­var­ro’s stance.  

“TTUTA sup­ports any or­gan­i­sa­tion or ini­tia­tive that will pro­tect not on­ly the stu­dents, (3:15) but the na­tion and its peo­ple and our mem­bers.” 

But, the pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Na­tion­al Coun­cil of Par­ent Teacher As­so­ci­a­tions Wal­ter Stew­art said rather than pe­nal­is­ing par­ents, the root cause of school vi­o­lence should be ad­dressed. 

“What I want to rec­om­mend to the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er is that we part­ner with par­ents and un­der­stand what the cir­cum­stances and root caus­es of chil­dren falling prey or go­ing awry to reg­u­la­tions and laws and why they are present­ly in this predica­ment that we are in.” 

He added that there are par­ents who are work­ing hard and go­ing be­yond the call of du­ty to raise their chil­dren prop­er­ly. 

Al­so com­ment­ing on the mat­ter was the pres­i­dent of the TTPS So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion ASP Gideon Dick­son, who called on the coun­try to come to­geth­er to ad­dress school vi­o­lence. 

He said the warn­ing by Gue­var­ro was wel­comed by the union, adding that schools should be a safe space.

“At the end of the day, a school should be a safe haven for our kids and not nec­es­sar­i­ly a stomp­ing ground for the na­tion’s kids. They are our next lead­ers, so all hands need to be on deck to treat with all crime types.


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