RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

As the Gov­ern­ment pre­pares to de­ploy po­lice of­fi­cers to high-risk schools from Sep­tem­ber, ed­u­ca­tion stake­hold­ers are call­ing for con­sis­tent eight-hour shifts, the use of snif­fer dogs, spe­cial­ized po­lice train­ing, and greater in­volve­ment of school safe­ty and tru­an­cy of­fi­cers.

Pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA), Mar­tin Lum Kin, told Guardian Me­dia the union sup­ports the mea­sure as a short-term in­ter­ven­tion.

“In terms of the an­nounce­ment by the Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter, we have no dif­fi­cul­ty with what she is sug­gest­ing. How­ev­er, this should be short-term in na­ture,” he said.

Lum Kin stressed the need for a con­sis­tent po­lice pres­ence both in­side and out­side school com­pounds.

“There should al­so be mo­bile and sta­t­ic pa­trols out­side of these schools to ad­dress in­ci­dents that may take place be­yond the school gates,” he said.

He be­lieves see­ing uni­formed of­fi­cers on school premis­es could send a strong mes­sage to stu­dents.

“We be­lieve in the short term, it will send a clear mes­sage to the na­tion’s chil­dren, as well as the na­tion, that the is­sue of vi­o­lence and in­dis­ci­pline has tak­en a di­rec­tion which re­quires some ex­treme mea­sures,” he ex­plained.

How­ev­er, Lum Kin said the po­lice role should go be­yond mere­ly be­ing vis­i­ble.

“The of­fi­cers are not just there vis­i­bly present, but they will have to in­flu­ence the chil­dren by way of di­rec­tion, lec­tures and oth­er as­pects as well,” he said.

He al­so urged schools to sup­port pos­i­tive ex­tracur­ric­u­lar pro­grammes.

“There are schools which have the cadets and oth­er groups that can pos­i­tive­ly in­flu­ence stu­dents’ be­hav­iour and dis­ci­pline. Stu­dents can see this as a valu­able op­por­tu­ni­ty to get in­to those pro­fes­sions,” he said.

Ac­knowl­edg­ing the strain on po­lice re­sources, Lum Kin not­ed that some schools, par­tic­u­lar­ly those in high-risk ar­eas, ur­gent­ly need sup­port.

“In these times, we need to en­sure that var­i­ous schools that have been iden­ti­fied have a con­sis­tent po­lice pres­ence,” he said.

Mean­while, Pres­i­dent of the Con­cerned Par­ents Move­ment, Clarence Men­doza, agreed on the need for con­sis­tent mea­sures and called for snif­fer dogs at school en­trances to de­ter stu­dents from bring­ing drugs on­to cam­pus­es.

“This will be a de­ter­rent to stu­dents bring­ing drugs on­to the school com­pound,” he said.

Men­doza sug­gest­ed plain-clothes of­fi­cers might be more ef­fec­tive and less dis­rup­tive to stu­dents.

“We al­ready have po­lice in schools with the safe­ty of­fi­cers. I don’t think the stu­dents are sup­posed to know that they are ac­tu­al­ly po­lice,” he said.

He al­so called for ex­pand­ing the roles of school safe­ty and tru­an­cy of­fi­cers.

“We are still look­ing for the Gov­ern­ment to put tru­an­cy of­fi­cers in place who will fol­low up on stu­dents, whether they are in school or not,” Men­doza ex­plained.

He in­sist­ed that po­lice of­fi­cers should re­main on school premis­es dur­ing the en­tire school day.

“They should be con­sis­tent and not just dri­ve by. They should be there for the eight-hour pe­ri­od and work along­side the safe­ty of­fi­cers,” he said.

Al­though he ac­knowl­edged that stu­dents might re­sist, Men­doza be­lieves the plan is worth pur­su­ing.

“It’s worth try­ing, it’s worth putting it in place, but they will get chal­lenges from the stu­dents,” he said.

On Mon­day night, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced her in­ten­tion to de­ploy po­lice of­fi­cers to schools by Sep­tem­ber to pro­tect stu­dents. She em­pha­sised that the move was dri­ven by da­ta rather than pol­i­tics.

“I got that list and I in­tend to act on my promise by shar­ing it with the TTPS. So when the school term be­gins, your chil­dren will have the pro­tec­tion of po­lice of­fi­cers in such schools,” she said.

She iden­ti­fied Pe­nal Sec­ondary School as one of the schools on the high-risk list.

“It is one of those schools,” she said, adding, “In my land, there are no PNM, UNC or any kind of chil­dren — there are on­ly chil­dren.”

How­ev­er, for­mer Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly not­ed that po­lice pres­ence in schools is not a new idea.

“This is def­i­nite­ly not a new idea. The po­lice have been in­volved in schools for some time, and def­i­nite­ly dur­ing my tenure. The po­lice have been sup­plied with the names of the schools most in need of their as­sis­tance for many years now. Once the in­ter­ac­tion is con­sis­tent and re­li­able, it is a help­ful tool,” she said.

Con­tact­ed for com­ment, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath said the list of high-risk schools is still be­ing fi­nalised based on da­ta re­lat­ed to sus­pen­sions, ex­pul­sions, and vi­o­lent in­ci­dents. He al­so stat­ed his in­ten­tion to con­sult TTUTA and oth­er stake­hold­ers on their sug­ges­tions.