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Trinidad Making a call to Action on School Violence

Roustan Job, President of the TT Unified Teachers in Trinidad is making it a priority to combat school violence within Trinidad schools. Job made the call before the reopening of the new school term because violence in schools has become an issue worldwide. He has become very concerned about the indiscipline and the violence that is being seen within the schools and recognizes that the necessary measures must be taken in order to make the violence stop. He stated that the previous school year showed that there were several incidents of violence in which one prompted the installation of metal detectors in all schools.
 
Job states that one of the issues is that students within the school system are illiterate and knows that a program has to be developed to solve this problem. By solving this problem, some of the violence that is seen in schools can be eliminated. Nevertheless, Job states that parents need to accept some responsibility for the violent acts that are committed by their children.
Job also states that what these children need are role models. Most of the role models that children have, especially the males, are negative role models. He says that parents that are too young are a problem as well.
 
Zena Ramatali, President of the National Teacher Association adds another perspective to the issue. She states that the establishment of student councils may help curb the issue of school violence. This is because many students are simply not disciplined well enough, if at all. This lack of discipline is like a fuel for school violence. These councils could have meetings in which they hash out many of the issues that are plaguing the school districts. Special education teachers would be assigned to the district as well.
 
Such an initiative is expected to be put in place very soon. There has to be early intervention that starts in preschool and continues throughout the student’s school years. Consistency in discipline and knowledge about school violence can make a considerable difference in the life of a student. However, parents must take responsibility for the behavior of their children who are under the age of 18 as well. The schools are not able to raise the children or teach them all of the morals that they are to have instilled into them.
 
Ramatali is also calling for a new code of conduct to be implemented quickly and that those responsible for disciplining are held responsible for their actions whey they don’t. School performance should also be posted on the ministry’s website in order to provide further motivation behind better violence control and overall school performance. This could, perhaps, make quite a different in the quality and safety of the school districts in Trinidad.