National PTA council cautions against blame game in assault at school

By Emmanuel Joseph

The Barbados National Council of Parent Teacher Associations (BNCPTA) has broken its silence on the alleged sexual assault of a student on the compound of the Frederick Smith Secondary School last week, and it has called on all involved not to play a blame game.

“It is very regrettable that such another misfortune has occurred in our school system and even more so at Frederick Smith Secondary School, which has been plagued with a myriad of tragedies over the years,” General Secretary of the BNCPTA Nicole Brathwaite told Barbados TODAY.

The Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) had admonished the body for remaining silent for too long.

But in defending the decision not to “rush” to respond to the incident which occurred last Thursday, Brathwaite insisted the leadership of the council first wanted to ensure it had all the facts.

“BNCPTA was not too hasty to comment as information coming to hand was sketchy and we didn’t want to speak on the matter without more facts about the alleged incident which had occurred on the school’s premises during school hours,” she said.

Adding that this was not a time for speculation or fingerpointing, Brathwaite cautioned: “As the matter at Frederick Smith Secondary School is under police investigation, let’s allow for due diligence to be done by them and the Ministry of Education and respect the privacy of the student and her family. Also, let’s not waste time pointing fingers and casting blame.”

She advised all stakeholders to instead attend the next PTA meeting and identify the problems, offer solutions and follow through on those.

“We are all in this process of education together, so let’s act like it, put all hands on deck and do better for the sake of our nation’s children,” Brathwaite added.

The BNCPTA said concerns about security at Frederick Smith Secondary and other schools across the island have been brought to light on several occasions and this latest incident “just might have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back”.

The BNCPTA general secretary said she was looking forward to urgent measures being put in place to remedy the situation at the school once and for all.

“We expect that the Ministry of Education will take swift action to make good on their promises to the staff and students at the Frederick Smith Secondary School as morale, productivity and student outcomes will no doubt be lowered with a diminished sense of security at their institution,” Brathwaite asserted.

“We urge all parents to comply with the security protocols in place at their children’s schools. We also urge parents to take their responsibilities to their children very seriously and make every effort to become vitally functioning members of the PTAs at their children’s schools.”

Brathwaite said it was a struggle at many schools to establish and maintain a PTA presence. She said these associations had “dynamic power to create healthy partnerships between home, school and community to make the teaching and learning environments their children go to as safe, engaging, beautiful and wholesome as possible”.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb