In a bind

Over a week after the fatal stabbing of a 16-year old student at the Frederick Smith Secondary School, parents, teachers and the education ministry appear in limbo over whether the St James institution should be reopened.

Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw told reporters on Friday afternoon there was no consensus on whether class should resume after almost six hours of talks today with lower and upper fifth students, their parents, teachers and other key stakeholders.

“It is a very delicate situation. Some people are ready to return to school, some persons are having some emotional difficulties going back into the same environment and our counsellors have been working with them to get them to a position where they feel comfortable going back into the school environment,” Bradshaw told reporters, outside the Alexandra School’s auditorium in St Peter where the meeting was held.

While acknowledging a decision would have to be made soon on the matter, the Minister of Education said numerous factors were still being considered and up to the time of publication, Barbados TODAY had not received a final position.

“We have to look obviously at the school’s plant and making sure everything is secure. We have started to take those steps to ensure the return to the premises is more secure than it may have been and to reassure persons in terms of the searches that will be done on site when school reopens,” she said.

“We have also had to address the situation in terms of ongoing counselling for a number of the young people, so we are looking at how we can provide the best support on site while persons adjust as they start back their classes as well.”

Parents, students and teachers arrived as early as 8 a.m. and packed the auditorium of the Speightstown school. The Assistant Commissioner of Police Erwin Boyce was in attendance along with counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists and guidance counsellors who have all been called upon to help with the healing process.

The top brass of the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) and the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) were both represented along with the Board of Management of the Frederick Smith school.

BSTU President Maryann Redman credited a last-minute decision to host meetings away from Frederick Smith Secondary for the large turnout and said the session started a process of healing for teachers and children who needed to grieve together.

She said the union is preparing to submit, before the start of next week, over 30 short and medium-term recommendations coming out of their meetings.

Meanwhile, the BUT’s Deputy General Secretary Rudi Lovell was thankful for the opportunity to allow teachers to grieve after the troubling event and said the union expected all reasonable steps to be taken to ensure their comfort.

For parents, the decision to send their children back into the classroom is a difficult one.

Evelyn Hippolyte told Barbados TODAY while she would not prevent her son, Clevonne from returning when the announcement was made, she would be praying a lot more.

“If I am accustomed praying two hours, I have to pray morning, noon and night. It is going to take a lot for a parent now to sit down and actually send a child back into that situation,” she said, while expressing her empathy at the circumstances under which the slain youth’s mother lost her son.   

“Her child will never walk this earth again and she will not see him in her house.

Douglas Goodman, another concerned parent, described Friday’s meetings as “very enlightening” and acknowledged the need to revive Frederick Smith’s struggling Parent Teacher Association.  In the meantime, he has little reservation about sending his daughter back into the institution.

“We know there are problems all over the place but I don’t think it is the school that has a problem, it is society,” he said.

For Junior Hinds who has a son in fifth form, the session was informative. However, he believes both teachers and parents need to be better educated on identifying dangerous behavioural patterns in children.

“People are saying there are always signs and teachers are spending so many hours with a child in one day, the teacher should also be trained to pick up some of the signs so they can relay it to the parent. As a ministry something should be in place to get help for the child at an early age,” he said.

Hinds added: “As a parent I am trying to sit one-on-one with my son and explain to him how to get past certain things. He knew both of the children but he is doing pretty decent right now.”

Velma Griffith, who accompanied her 15-year-old grandson to the session, said she was very satisfied with Minister Bradshaw’s sentiments and recommendations, but was still very concerned about why the young victim’s life could not be saved.

“I would like to know why he got so many stab wounds and there was no one there to help him and with so many people in the school he was all alone,” she said.

kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb