Wrong target, charges Ross

Children’s advocate Shelly Ross says action should be taken against those at the helm of the Government Industrial School (GIS) following the most recent scandal that saw a 14-year-old being kept in a cell with little or no clothing.

And, she is also upset that the board at GIS has been changed and not some staff who have been presiding over the situation, especially recently highlighted at the Barrows, St Lucy facility.

“The principal should have been the first one gone because he presided over all of that,” Ross told Barbados TODAY.

In fact, Ross has given Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams a failing grade for the way he has so far handled the breaking development at the GIS.

Ross has described the announcement of a new board to oversee the running of the GIS as a bad call by Minister Abrahams and one she charged, which could not have been made with the best interest of children in mind.

“I personally think it is a joke. The minister had enough evidence over the years from emails, from letters, from posts in the press,” she said. “The board members are not the abusers,” she added.

The advocate said in her opinion, the steps the minister should have taken are not as complicated as many are making it out to be. She suggested that the first thing that should have been done was for officials to speak to the current wards of GIS to

“I really didn’t think that they were going to work in the interest of the children. They had enough time. They had enough ammunition and they had the girls there that were being affected that they could speak to,” she said.

Ross said she was so not pleased that there was a general feeling within society that the wards at GIS are “criminals” and they are being treated that way.

The advocate sounded a reminder that the children at the institution have come from different socio-economic backgrounds with a variety of issues and as a result are crying out for help and compassion and a chance to have a hopeful life.

“All I can do is to appeal to Barbadians to think seriously about child abuse and to get information on what constitutes child abuse and to try within themselves not to abuse children. I don’t think people understand what child abuse is really all about and I think many of us are still doing it because of what happened to us or somebody still lives with us and we have accepted it for so long. People go about every day abusing children and I really wish each of us would take time and think about it because today it’s my child, tomorrow it is yours,” she added. (AH)