00:00Feces were thrown on the student's bag I believe somewhere around 7.15 yesterday
00:05morning. They are unaware as to who the perpetrator is and they are looking at
00:10it but the real underlying issue is there is increased level of bullying not
00:14only at Miss North Secondary School but at a number of our schools in Trinidad
00:19and Tobago. Based on my understanding I believe the students whoever it is would
00:24have gone to the toilet to get some of those whatever it was and to throw it on
00:28the child's bag. To prevent that particular incident I'm not certain how
00:34we'll do that you see we can't predict when the crimes would take place. What we
00:38need to do is coach the thinking of our young persons so we don't have children
00:42thinking about doing that kind of a thing. That's not funny that's not in no
00:46way a game to play. Mr. Roberts said there is an underlying issue affecting
00:52the education system and that is indiscipline in schools. The underlying
00:57issue also is that they are tying the hands of principals and teachers and
01:01then the public is calling on principals for answers. When you have a cherry
01:05picking of items of the policies of our schools and we ridicule those we
01:12are breaking down the same tenets that we looking for to have discipline
01:16instilled in our students. So for example we had the hairstyle policy the
01:21minister jumped on her typewriter and nullified that because there were some
01:25persons talking about the African culture and so on. So now we have our
01:28students going to school with a knotted up fading the sides here we have the
01:33young ladies with the baby edges and so on. So the focus is not really on the
01:38schoolwork we are focusing on the hairstyles. Mr. Roberts sought to bring a
01:43clearer picture on the matter. We know that teachers are not to beat, have
01:49corporal punishment and so on but teachers cannot even be too stern to a
01:53child because that's verbal abuse. So when we have these national policies and we
01:58have the judges rule of 2016 where it highlights all the things that police
02:03officers cannot do to school children. What are we really asking of principals
02:08and teachers when we have this culture at our schools. He said more personnel
02:12are needed to assist the student support services unit. Student support services
02:18division is significantly under resourced in terms of personnel in terms
02:21of time frame for them to be able to address all these schools. So instead of
02:24a guidance officer having five or six children they may have five or six
02:28schools. So the resources to treat with what is needing our schools in Tobago
02:32it's not there and that resources of personnel and resources of the actual
02:37material that we would need to assist our schools. School supervisor 3 Sherry
02:42Anne Rolox Hackett also visited the school in addition to police officers on
02:46the compound on Tuesday. Elizabeth Williams TV6 News
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