Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

A Cou­va moth­er is de­mand­ing jus­tice and call­ing on par­ents to take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for their chil­dren’s ac­tions af­ter her 13-year-old son was bru­tal­ly beat­en out­side Union Clax­ton Bay Sec­ondary.

Wor­ried for her son’s safe­ty, the moth­er is now seek­ing a trans­fer to an­oth­er school. Her son, a Form Two stu­dent, had just left the school when two Form Four stu­dents at­tacked him on Wednes­day. The 40-year-old moth­er, who asked not to be named, re­called that on Wednes­day she had just ar­rived home from work when the school called around 2.30 pm to in­form her that her son had been beat­en.

She met her son in the of­fice. “When I saw him, his face was swollen on both sides. The per­son beat him in his eyes, so his eyes were red on one side. Al­so, his mouth was swollen big. Blood was on the shirt. His el­bows were bruised up.” The prin­ci­pal gave him an ice bag to put on his eye. She said her son was cry­ing, but she tried to stay calm while com­fort­ing him.

She took him to the near­by health cen­tre and then to the St Mar­garet’s Po­lice Sta­tion, where a re­port was lodged. Re­call­ing what her son told her hap­pened, she said, “They cuff him from be­hind and throw him down on the ground. They end up on the road. They kick him up all in his back and chest... He say, ‘Mum­my, I try to brakes.’”

She said the school se­cu­ri­ty did not in­ter­vene, but his friends “calm down every­thing” and picked up his phone and wal­let from the road.

While the prin­ci­pal told her that the boys would be sus­pend­ed, she be­lieves they should face crim­i­nal charges.

“I just want jus­tice for what they do to my son ... At least more than sus­pen­sion.” Al­though her son was nev­er at­tacked phys­i­cal­ly be­fore, she said some Form Four stu­dents would bul­ly younger stu­dents, and a few weeks ago her son stood up to them, which was why he was at­tacked.

Al­lud­ing to the re­cent Holy Faith Con­vent in­ci­dent where a fe­male stu­dent was beat­en by five girls out­side the school, she said, “I don’t want to see this hap­pen again with my child. As a sin­gle par­ent too, you know what it is to know that you home and your chil­dren not safe on the road and to know that some­body just beat up your child?” She urged par­ents to take bet­ter con­trol of their chil­dren and get more in­volved in their lives. “You ask your­self what the par­ents do­ing in the homes with their chil­dren. What are you do­ing as a par­ent? Be­cause you can’t be bring­ing up a child who could just beat up your child.”

She said her son would be in school to­day for his last test, but she in­tends to ac­com­pa­ny him to and from school. Con­tact­ed for a com­ment, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath as­sured that fur­ther in­ves­ti­ga­tion was be­ing vig­or­ous­ly pur­sued by the school to sus­pend the per­pe­tra­tors in­volved. The min­is­ter added that coun­selling and be­hav­iour­al in­ter­ven­tions will be car­ried out by the Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices Di­vi­sion on the stu­dents in­volved in the fra­cas.

The min­is­ter re-em­pha­sised the min­istry’s po­si­tion of ze­ro tol­er­ance in ad­dress­ing acts of school vi­o­lence. Mean­while, the po­lice re­turned to the school yes­ter­day, and in­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing. Five stu­dents from three sec­ondary schools have been charged in con­nec­tion with the as­sault on the Holy Faith Con­vent stu­dent.