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  • 1 year ago
The Education Minister says this country has a national culture of bullying, and it is a national issue that must be addressed.

Speaking in the House of Representative on Wednesday, the Minister said this has been highlighted by the tragic suicide of 15-year-old Jayden Lalchan.

His parents said he was the subject of bullying at his school.

Concerns were also expressed by a member of the Opposition.

Juhel Browne reports.

Transcript
00:00Coming out of this tragic situation, we have recognized that we have a national
00:05culture of bullying. It happens on social media like clockwork.
00:10Education Minister Dr. Diane Gatsby-Dolley during the budget debate in the House of
00:15Representatives on Wednesday, as she spoke about Jayden Larchan, a 15-year
00:19oldest student of St. Stephen's College in Princestown, who took his own life
00:25Sadly, Jayden's life is gone, but we have seen in this week alone, two other suicides taking place.
00:35We can point to situations in schools 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, where school children have
00:42taken their lives. So it's a national problem that we have to face, and we have
00:47to think about how we can be kinder to each other.
00:50The Education Minister did not provide any details about the other two suicides she mentioned.
01:00Dr. Gatsby-Dolley spoke the day after Jayden Larchan's funeral on Tuesday.
01:05I want to really express my condolences to the family of Jayden Larchan. That is a young life
01:15that was tragically lost in this country, and I want to say to the national population
01:24that the allegation of bullying, bullying is on the national discipline matrix. It's listed as
01:33an infraction, and there are procedures which guide principles about how to deal with bullying.
01:39Jayden Larchan's mother told the Express newspaper that she did make reports to the school her son
01:44attended, but received no response. The Police Service is now conducting its own investigation.
01:51Also expressing concern in the Parliament was Opposition MP Anita Haynes.
01:57Mr. Deputy Speaker, and I join with several colleagues in expressing condolences to the
02:04family of young Jayden Larchan, and as we grapple as a society with an instance of bullying that has
02:19led to the scariest of outcomes, we are faced with a lot of conversation about what can be done
02:29and what ought to be done. MP Haynes repeated calls she made since she was elected a member
02:34of Parliament in 2010. We have to find ways to include within the curriculum spaces for
02:42that can help students deal with things like conflict resolution and anger management.
02:48Dr. Gatsby Dolly said data show that a lot of school indiscipline takes place when students
02:54are unsupervised and learning support assistants are meant to address that problem.
02:59We now have 227 school social workers, 282 guidance counsellors, over 500 officers in our schools.
03:07Those schools in the School of Focus program, they have their dedicated school social worker,
03:13their guidance counsellor that are assigned to two schools in a cluster in there. Why?
03:18Because the workload is more. Our students need more attention.
03:22The education minister spoke about a restorative practices pilot program in 11 schools through
03:27which children are being taught how to deal with conflict and how to rebound from tragedy.
03:34Jule Brown, TV6 News.
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