Zero tolerance in effect

Suspended students of Tranquillity Government Secondary School will not be allowed back into the school when classes resume on Monday morning for the rest of the school population.

This was revealed by principal of the school Dr Mervyn Sandy as he addressed parents of students at the Tranquillity Methodist Church, corner Victoria Avenue and Tragarete Road, Port-of-Spain. Addressing an almost packed church, Sandy said due to the closure of the school, end of term exams had been cancelled. However, following extensive meetings with teachers at the school earlier this week, it was agreed that when classes resumed Monday, they would conduct classes until the end of the term.

Measures to be implemented by the school include the immediate enforcement of the zero-tolerance policy as suggested by the Ministry of Education, Sandy stated. He explained that this policy included any student caught in possession of drugs/arms/ammunition/threatening teachers or threatening students of the school or other schools. He further disclosed that these students will be handed over to the police, following which they will be charged and criminal proceedings instituted against them.

Further and apart from court action against them, they will also be subjected to school suspension, and sent to “a special place” where they will be counselled and given a taste of what that kind of life is like. At this point, Sandy said parents of troubled students will be also be subjected to counselling, as they will need to have a knowledge of the proper tools on how to teach, train and control their children. He reiterated that the Education Ministry had agreed to both short and long term proposals, some of which included increasing security guards, installing of iron gates to all bathrooms, raising the back school wall on Stanmore Avenue and effecting repairs to the physical infrastructure of the school.

Education Minister Hazel Manning on Thursday revealed that several measures were going to be put in place to minimise the acts of violence outside of school hours, in which the police force would be called upon to play a great role. Sandy told parents that the school would now be supplied with six guards; an unmarked police car stationed outside the school on Victoria Avenue on evenings; plain clothes policemen on the street after school; patrols around the block following the dismissal of school; and increased security personnel at City Gate and along the streets of Port-of-Spain to ensure that children do not “lime.”