‘Heads should roll’

CALLS FOR SOMEONE TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR ASSAULT AT SCHOOL; GROUP SUGGESTS COMPENSATION

By Anesta Henry and Sheria Brathwaite

A children’s advocate is calling for someone to be held accountable for the security lapse that led to the alleged assault of a female student at the Frederick Smith Secondary School while a group has suggested that the Government should compensate the child and her family.
While saying that she was saddened at the response given to the issue by Minister of Education Kay McConney, Shelly Ross lamented that there was an apparent lack of accountability for many incidents occurring at the Trents, St James school.

“Heads should be rolling since Thursday. The principal should be sent on leave, and this school needs a thorough investigation. With no accountability in our schools, these matters are going unnoticed and schools like Frederick Smith continue to fail our children while it seems to be accepted that the children are ‘no good’, and that is simply a cop-out,” she said in an interview with Barbados TODAY.

“If I have a party at my home and I invite some children, I am accountable for what happens at my home. If you take a group of children on a tour, somebody has to be accountable for what happens. You always have to be checking where children are concerned.

“Somebody has to be held accountable for our children when they are at school. We have situations happening in our schools where nobody is being held accountable for anything, and anything goes. People are paid to do jobs in schools to ensure the safety of the children on the premises and when they fail, they have to be accountable for it,” Ross insisted.

The children’s rights activist said parents and guardians also need to demand this accountability.

“And if they do not, over time, regardless of the senseless legislation being put in place, more children will be murdered, raped, beaten up or failed academically. This is what parents should be marching about,” she argued.

Following a four-hour meeting with staff, teachers’ unions, and other officials at the Frederick Smith Secondary School, it was agreed that security would be improved there and new measures took effect on Monday.

Ross, who said she has been keeping a close eye on how the Ministry of Education has been handling the matter, said she was not impressed with Minister Kay McConney’s response.

“I didn’t hear ‘I am sorry’, I didn’t hear regret, I didn’t hear it wouldn’t happen again, I didn’t hear anything that would make me comfortable as a parent,” she said.

“Having an appointed person walk the school compound throughout the day to see what is happening on the premises is preventative and yet something as simple as that seems to be rocket science.”

The call for compensation, meanwhile, came from the Watch Out My Children Movement in a statement on Monday.

“We stand in empathy and support of the child and her family,” stated the group which said its mission is to “safeguard and protect the development and future of the nation’s children against threats to values and faith while preserving the traditional family”.

It added that the security measures being implemented at the school should be developed in consultation with parents, teachers and students.

The group said this should be undertaken with the understanding that while students and staff need to be protected, parents must retain reasonable access to their children when necessary during school hours.

Parent and student advocate Paula-Anne Moore, meanwhile, said she hopes one of the positive lasting changes resulting from this “tragedy” is how parents advocate collectively for their children.

“School administration is stronger when parents, generally, and PTAs are active. We are all busy but we cannot leave it primarily to teachers and principals to represent our interests and that of our children,” Moore told Barbados TODAY on Monday.

The coordinator of the Group of Concerned Parents also called for a revision of the role of parent-teacher associations.

“We do need to review and examine generally the key roles of the schools’ PTAs and national PTA councils. One of the key roles is to act as advocacy organisations for the best interests of children and parents, as well as communications,” she advised.

She said the incident was “utterly shocking, devastating and heartbreaking”, and her group stands ready to assist the child and family in any way possible as they try to grapple with the mental trauma caused by the incident.

The Ministry of Education has already offered counselling for staff and students.

Meanwhile, human and parental rights advocate Felicia Dujon told Barbados TODAY that she hoped that the ministry would take security more seriously following the incident at the Frederick Smith Secondary School.

“It’s very unfortunate that that kind of heinous crime has happened on school premises. The school should always be a place where children feel safe. What we’re seeing is not just the fact that there is violence in schools [among school children] but now we’re seeing that children are being sexually violated in schools. So it brings a different dynamic to the safety and security at schools,” she said.

“I think us parents have a responsibility to ensure that the Ministry of Education is taken to task on that matter because it’s not only about providing education to the children but of course, to also ensure their safety. It is the responsibility of the state to ensure that when children are in their care, that all measures of security are paramount and they must also implement various types of safety management and policies for the students.”

Noting that inadequate security has been a longstanding concern at several schools, she added: “I think it’s time that the ministry takes serious notice and does what is necessary to start protecting children in all schools. Not only certain schools, but all schools require that kind of level of security.

“How do you expect a child or even a teacher to feel comfortable in an environment where someone could come from the streets and walk into the school compound and violate someone? The ministry has to take it as an awakening call . . . . It dropped the ball on this one. The Government has to take responsibility for these matters . . . . It’s no longer about the lip service that they do,” said Dujon.

anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb