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CCNTV6
  • 7 months ago
The National Parent Teachers Association is calling for immediate and decisive action to address the growing crisis of school violence.

President Walter Stewart says he is ready and willing to meet with the Education Minister to push for stronger interventions.

Tv6's Nicole M Romany reports.
Transcript
00:00The National Parent Teachers Association is sounding the alarm over what it describes
00:06as a dangerous escalation of violence in schools and a troubling lack of action to address it.
00:13President Walter Stewart says the Association's greatest concern is the silence and inaction
00:19from key authorities, even as violent incidents continue to rise. He fears the situation is fast
00:27becoming untenable. Stewart is backing the Prime Minister's call for stricter disciplinary measures
00:34including suspension and the involvement of law enforcement where necessary. He believes the time
00:40for hesitation has passed. They understand that they can't do me anything, literally. I have coined
00:48the acronym SEA, suspend, expel and arrest because that is what our students need in order to
00:57jolt them into the reality that school violence, school indiscipline cannot be business as usual.
01:04It cannot continue ad nauseum. Stewart says the Association is guided by the National
01:10Disciplinary Matrix, which was revised in 2022 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. He believes that if
01:18the ministry is prepared to fully implement the framework, it could lead to a meaningful shift
01:24in student behavior. There has to be act behind the policy document. So I think if the government
01:31through the Ministry of Education is willing to enforce the policy, revised policy, let me use that
01:37terminology, yesterday and of course bring all the stakeholders together in order to come up with the
01:42best fit at this time and of course object to tweaking from time to time, we should see some
01:48mitigation, some reduction in the level of crime, the aggression and the rapidity at which the
01:55frequency at which these school violence take place. Lamenting the escalating school violence,
02:01the NPTA head is raising concern over its continued exclusion from high level talks. While the education
02:09minister has met with other stakeholders in recent weeks, the association is questioning why it has not
02:15yet been invited to the table. Stewart says the crisis demands all hands on deck, adding that the NPTA
02:22stands ready to meet with the minister immediately to address this growing problem at the nation's schools.
02:29And we wonder when he's going to meet with the National Council of Parent Teacher Association. I want to
02:36posit that the parents are, in my humble view, the main stakeholder in the business of education. If there are
02:46no students, children that we produce, there'll be no need for teachers, educators, administration, etc. So we wait
02:55anxiously with bated breath for the time and the minister would invite us to a meeting. However, the
03:00association president warns that punishment alone won't solve the problem. Stewart stresses that any
03:07firm response must be balanced with meaningful support for students. We have to now merge the punitive
03:15action with restorative action as well. So you can't leave them up to the wolves as it were, imprison them
03:22or my lap as the case might be. Because we have to now understand, Marlon, that they are root causes to the
03:28behavior of our students. They didn't wake up on a Thursday morning and begin to lash out. Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
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