Ministry says parents first checkpoint in making schools safer

or the second time this week, a student at a secondary school has been stabbed in a fight, prompting education leaders to implore parents to step up and do more to prevent the spread of violence.

 

Barbados TODAY has learned that two students were involved in an after-school altercation at the back gate of Graydon Sealy Secondary School on Friday, resulting in one of them being stabbed. The ages of the students and the weapon used were not immediately revealed.

 

In a statement in the evening, the Ministry of Education confirmed that the injury was not life-threatening but expressed concern about how a different outcome could have impacted families, friends, staff, and the student body.

 

The incident followed a stabbing on Tuesday at The Alexandra School in Speightstown, St Peter in the second week of term in which a 15-year-old boy was injured.

 

The development prompted the ministry to make a special appeal to all education partners for greater vigilance, particularly urging parents to take action.

 

“While the Ministry of Education, in partnership with our schools, is taking the necessary precautions regarding our children’s safety, we are especially appealing to parents to assist us by regularly searching their children’s bags for weapons or contraband of any kind,” the ministry said.

 

“We kindly remind all parents and guardians that they must be their children’s first checkpoint in making schools safer. We must work together to help our young citizens make the correct decisions when faced with difficult circumstances.”

 

The ministry said that while it is collaborating with schools to provide counselling services and guidance on effective conflict resolution, far greater results can be achieved with the continued support of parents and the wider community.

“The safety of our students is a collective responsibility, and we are appealing for a recommitment to the protection of our children,” it said.

 

The heads of the nation’s two teachers unions backed the ministry’s message, insisting that parents must take accountability for their children’s violent acts.

 

“I really don’t know what to say; I am saddened, shocked, frustrated, and disappointed,”  President of the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) Mary Redman said. “Parenting is crucial, as are all the negative influences—such as minibus culture, music, video games that blur reality and fantasy, movies they watch, and a lack of parental supervision–[that] all contribute to a lack of respect for law and order, structure and discipline, as well as respect for one another and an inability to manage conflict”.

 

She added: “It is just disheartening. This could have had a far more tragic outcome. I endorse the ministry’s statement that all stakeholders must be more vigilant and play a more meaningful role in surveilling, guiding, and mentoring children in our society.”

 

President of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), Rudy Lovell also called on parents to do more.

 

“The BUT remains concerned about violence in schools,” he said. “In our message before the start of the academic year, we highlighted the need to increase security in schools and urged individuals to be more vigilant given the recent rise in violence within society. Unfortunately, there have been two stabbings at two secondary schools and an incident of intrusion at a primary school. However, violence in schools cannot be resolved solely at the school level or by the ministry alone. We encourage parents to take greater responsibility for their children by guiding and directing them appropriately.”

 

Lovell stressed that schools should not bear the burden of such incidents.

 

“The school only has children for five to six hours each day; regardless of what is taught during that time, children return to their home environment afterwards. Schools can do as much remedial work as possible, but once children go back home, they will reabsorb what they have been taught alongside what they encounter in their environment. We do not believe schools should be blamed for incidents like this,” he said.

 

Principal of The Alexandra School David McCarthy, after implementing searches at the school gate following the stabbing incident on Monday, had also called for collective action from parents and the wider community to address the issue of violence in schools.