#BTColumn – Enough is enough

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

by Paula-Anne Moore

We empathise with our nation’s 900-plus 11- to 18-year-old girls, their parents and teachers, and other school staff, who were traumatised and experienced emotional, mental and, in some cases, physical harm, as a result of the security simulation of armed assailants at Springer Memorial. I have belly hurt still and am frankly furious imagining the unnecessary terror and vulnerability those children must have felt, exacerbated at an all-girls, majority-female teacher school. That memory will remain with many for a lifetime.

Security policies and protocols are essential, some would say basic, components of any national education system. Should these protocols, in accordance with international best practice age-appropriate standards specific to schools, not already be in place and clearly disseminated to all our schools, for consistency of implementation?

This is not micromanagement, this is leadership.

It is therefore more than incomprehensible that our highly educated education authorities, in 2023, are attempting to sell a message to the public that the “lessons learned” from this simulation debacle will be incorporated in the future formulation of the national school security protocols. This is not the way to devise important policy. I have taught my sons that ‘learning the hard way’ can be avoided by proper planning and relying on real expertise.

I am not an education professional, but possession of empathy, common sense, and a business management background tells me that there is little benefit from learning through trauma, particularly trauma that is easily foreseeable and intentional, even with the best of intentions. This is like saying slavery had job skills training benefits! Callousness and cruelty in education are a legacy of our plantation society that should not be exhibited in 2023!

The Barbadian psychologist professionals (and a simple Google search of the Best Practice Considerations of the US National Association of Child Psychologists) have confirmed recommendations strongly against involving children in simulations of armed assailant invasions. This is falling out of favour even in the US with frequent gun violence in schools.  It makes one wonder on what basis we define health and safety ‘experts’.

One would never start a fire as part of a fire drill. This incident should never have happened.

Parental informed consent is also essential and accepted as best practice in the planning process.

Nothing I and many other parents heard in the joint press conference hosted by the METVT on October 12 assuaged parental concerns. Indeed, the message of minimisation of the child, parent and teacher anguish generated by the incident, only rubbed salt in the open wounds of the mistreatment of these children, from the ministry in whose care they are entrusted. We felt condescended to.

The communication strategy at the press conference was an ‘epic fail’.  It avoided the provision of reasonable details (exactly what was the intended scenario?), and gave misleading, at best, information as to how – who, what, when, and where – the teachers and children were informed of the simulation. Was everyone told clearly that it was a security drill? What was the specific prior training, not just handouts, given to the children? When were they told? Did all receive the detailed information on the simulation?). How in 2023 are we again executing major initiatives involving our children, whom we have a duty of care to protect, which are not based on global best practices? There was a deflection by focusing with much time and emphasis on the need for school security drills, which no one disputes.  It even appeared that victim blaming was deployed: the victim children were blamed for their more than expected and understandable reaction to strange, masked men with weapons and reports of chopped desks.

Feedback from parents supports the view that the teachers’ unions appeared to let down their membership at the school who were adversely affected by the simulation, based on their messaging at the press conference. Public perception was that, by being in lockstep with the official messaging at the press conference, union leadership was complicit.

We demand further clarity over the simulated weapons used. Despite what was categorically denied at the press conference, many reports from children and teachers state that a gun was wielded. If true, does it matter to a child full of terror if a gun is real or not? Are we attempting to define a gun as only a real one cleverly? The cutlasses certainly appeared to be real, based on the damage reported.

We were told the Barbados Police Service and the Barbados Defence Force were partners in enacting the simulation. Why weren’t they present at the press conference?

We are told that “all schools are good schools”. Yet Springer was selected as the first school for this type of simulation. That only feeds the public perception, some would say reality, of‘ “separate and not equal” schools.

That this debacle transpired during International Day of the Girl and Education Month, and within a week of the launch of both the National Education Transformation Proposals and the National One Family Programme Launch, is a profoundly tragic irony.

Apologising and accepting responsibility (or taking one for the team and/or getting thrown under the bus is commendable, but standard now in 2023. Being held accountable is not the blame game. Our children and we, parents, should never have been subjected to this debacle. Not in 2023.

What does this experience say about our political leadership? Why have both the minister and prime minister been silent on this matter which has inflamed the entire nation? Once serious challenge such as the IDB questionnaire a year ago, involving third parties, can perhaps be excused. Several major missteps, including the decision to launch island-wide CXC CSEC and CAPE e-testing, traumatising too many children as a result, despite clear evidence that this ambition was not matched with sufficient IT infrastructure capacity, is a deeply worrisome, embarrassing pattern of behaviour of those to whom we are supposed to entrust a massive proposed potentially disruptive transformation of our entire national education system. Our implementation deficit disorder is well documented in several initiatives – the National ID Card, TAMIS, driver’s licence renewals being unavailable for extended periods, and more.

This is not how one promotes public trust and builds confidence, especially regarding those that we hold most dear – our innocent, precious children.

No counselling after the fact can remove the unnecessary mental and medical trauma these children, parents and teachers were subjected to.

Parents: don’t let anyone minimise what was done to your children – and to you! Both children and parents have separate but equal rights to better treatment.

Barbadians should not accept this incident and the official communication thus far relating to it either. We should all advocate for better accountability and real consequences.

The buck stops…. where?

Paula-Anne Moore is spokesperson/coordinator of the Group of Concerned Parents, Barbados and the Caribbean Coalition for Exam Redress.