KEVON FELMINE
kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
Police are likely to lay charges against a father captured in video footage beating a male student at the Morvant Laventille Secondary School.
Speaking on CNC3's The Morning Brew yesterday, acting ASP Ashraf Ali confirmed that the police deemed the incident an assault.
The video showed the father dragging the schoolboy from a car, holding the child by his school bag and punching him in his head.
Ali said the boy’s parents reported the incident to the police, and there is an ongoing investigation. When the investigators submit their findings, the TTPS will determine what charges to lay against the father.
Ali said it would be a deterrent against other parents responding violently to issues relating to their children.
“There are other means that you can use. You need to report it to the police. Yes, you might feel that the police might be moving a little slower than you anticipate, but at the end of the day, those are children making allegations against each other. We cannot just jump on the bandwagon and say that when an allegation is made, we find the person guilty immediately.
An investigation has to be initiated, and both sides have to have a hearing,” Ali said.
The boy's mother, Roxanne Phillip, said the school suspended her son and another boy for a week for choking and inappropriately touching a girl on the compound. When he returned, he did not speak to the girl. However, Phillip said when he walked to get a car to return home, the girl's father was driving around, looking for her son. She said the allegations were out of character for her son and people told her they were untrue.
Ali said the Police Service (TTPS) does not want parents to take it upon themselves to respond to school violence similarly. The TTPS is hopeful the situation does not evolve into something more serious.
He said these situations could create a cycle of parents attacking students because of incidents in the school. Ali wants parents to trust in the law and believe the appropriate action will follow.
“The violent cycle has to stop. We need to be more responsible in our actions. Yes, I can understand the circumstance in how the parent may have felt. As a parent, I understand. I empathize with parents, but at the end of the day, we cannot take the law into our hands. There is a legal system. There is the Police Service.”
The Ministry of Education and school principals have procedures to deal with errant behaviours in school, and Ali said a suspension is one method. However, he said it is not an indication of guilt in the eyes of the law and the TTPS. If the police have to charge the boy for alleged acts in school, it has to investigate whether he committed a crime.
Ali said Police Youth Clubs and the Child Protection Unit have officers trained to mediate conflicts among students and parents and engage schools to deal with challenges. Recently, the TTPS granted a request from the Ministry of Education to patrol outside and in the vicinity of several secondary schools prone to regular bouts of violence since the reopening in April.