More security in schools

THE EDITOR: Trinidad and Tobago has repeatedly demonstrated that it is a society which plans on hindsight.

Recently, and particularly in Tobago, some unnerving incidents have taken place in our schools. Our immediate reaction was a call for more security in schools. All of this is understandable. However, is it the answer? We are living in changing times — new values, new loyalties, and new ailments. We therefore have to develop new perspectives on living and survival. We can no longer continue as we have been doing over the centuries. Our approach to security and safety in schools must radically be changed.

While we have been relying on good luck, custom and piecemeal strategies to ensure safe and secure schools, other societies have been developing approaches to risk management — developing policies, procedures, and regulations that help to maximise the safety of all students, teachers, auxiliary personnel, and visitors in schools and at the same time minimising the risk of litigation from those who feel aggrieved by such actions. Therefore, the time has come for us — not only in our schools, but in the entire society — to focus on safety and security in a systematic and scientific manner. We need to contain our fears and irrational responses.

We must also understand that we live in a millennium, which demands that risk management be seen as a high priority in daily operations. Just as business management is a discipline to be studied, so too can the principles and theories of risk management be studied and applied. Failure to recognise and accept this fact of life would mean continued stress, misfortune, and sorrow for us as individuals and collectively as a society. Our leaders must act now! In the interim, principals, are well advised to develop strategies of risk management to insulate their students and staff from criminal, psychological, physical and chemical risks.

RAYMOND S HACKETT
Curepe