Student tells El Do teacher trying to correct him: ‘I know when your wife, child

Student tells El Do teacher trying to correct him: ‘I know when your wife, child home’

Rhondor Dowlat
Published: Guardian
Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Minister in the Ministry of Education, Dr Lovell Francis, shares a light moment with Sixth Form El Dorado East Secondary students during a visit to the school yesterday. PHOTO: NICOLE DRAYTON
Education Minister Anthony Garcia yesterday vowed to take action against deviant students at the El Dorado East Secondary school after learning that staff was living in fear as the institution had become overrun by illegal activity, including drugs, gambling and thefts and those teachers who tried to instil some discipline were being threatened by the students.

“I know where you live. I know when your wife and daughter does be home. I know what to do to get revenge,” one student reportedly told a teacher who attempted to discipline him.

This was one of the shocking bits of information Garcia received during a lengthy meeting with the school’s principal and teachers.

One school official, who wished not to be identified, said many times students were discovered trying to sneak onto the compound with illegal drugs, including weed and cocaine, which they try to hide even in their body cavities just “like prisoners do in jail.”

“Imagine they having gambling rings and money lending businesses, too,” the official added, noting teachers’ tyres are also constantly slashed by students.

The T&T Guardian also was told of an alleged sex ring where girls were paid as low as $5 to perform sexual acts on boys.

After yesterday’s meeting, Garcia said he had instructed the school’s principal to provide him with a list of all the problematic students.

However, he did not say whether there would be another act like at the Chaguanas North Secondary School (CNSS) where 24 students were removed from the school.

In that school, several students were also arrested and charged on various offences, including a plot to kill a security guard, threatening to harm a teacher physically and use of obscene language.

Garcia said yesterday since the removal of the students at Chaguanas, there had been a vast improvement.

Speaking about the El Dorado situation, Garcia said: “We have heard the cries of teachers today and we intend to do something about it. As soon as I am provided with that list we are going to sit and decide what we are going to do. I am not going to tolerate any deviant behaviour in any school.”

He added: “Imagine a parent complained to me her Form One student came home with his pants wet in front because he was afraid to go to the toilet because he was bullied, beaten and made to pay to use the toilet facilities. We have been told that teachers face the worst kind of curse and derogatory statements by students.”

Garcia said the school was once known as the “Jewel of the East” and he intended to return it to that kind of status again. He assured that the security at the school would be heightened.

First vice-president of the T&T Teacher’s Unified Association (TTUTA), Antonia de Freitas, said a number of systemic problems at the school needed to be addressed immediately.

“We also recognise the need for cross ministerial collaboration because it is not an education problem but a societal problem. We are advocating for ministries to come together to find solutions to support teachers and students. We will also be having discussions with the Ministry of Education on school violence and indiscipline,” De Freitas said.

National Parent Teachers Association (NPTA) president Zena Ramatali, who was also part of the visiting contingent at the school, said she was very disturbed to hear the kinds of things coming out in the meeting.

She said the NPTA would be recommending a national parenting policy across the board “to have programmes in place to help parents and children... programmes for children to be placed in rehabilitation programmes so that they can go through rehab and then be reintegrated into the school system.”

Ramatali also said they were looking at the Suspension Centre Programmes that were in existence in Barbados and Jamaica and would hopefully meet with officials from those countries to see how best they could implement their systems in T&T.

www.guardian.co.tt/news/2016-03-01/stude...-child-home%E2%80%99

Teachers are slowly becoming an endangered species. This threat by the student must have been a worrying situation for the teacher because his family may be in Jeopardy. In most instances the system has been too lenient with disruptive students. It's now time to institute measures which would seek to prohibit these type of behaviours.