AS REPORTS EMERGE of violence against teachers in the secondary schools, members of the public were especially incensed about the most recent incident where a teacher was spat on, kicked and punched by a student in third form.
This comes in the wake of an incident from last term where a teacher’s car was damaged to the tune of $11 000. He is refusing to return to the campus and was reporting to the Ministry of Education until the matter was resolved.
Online readers have called for the latest incident to be dealt with swiftly to send a message that such behaviour won’t be tolerated in schools.
Cynthia Taitt: A teacher being “spat on, kicked and punched by a student”. This is an outrageous criminal attack and the student ought to be prosecuted and expelled. Incidents of this nature must be stamped out and teachers protected.
Stephen Lovell: After all this long talk, the child must be given due process. We heard the allegations against the child, we have not heard her side of the story. [Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union president] Mary Redman was on VOB telling us what should happen to the child; I am waiting to hear what will happen if the teacher is found guilty in anything.
BlackLionStar: What about the rights of a child to get education until the age of 18? This girl is only in third form so can’t be more than 16 years old. Let her write a letter of apology to the teacher and end it right there. If she does this again at 18 years old or more, then she can be prosecuted.
Expulsion would only make this worse as an education would be foregone. She could be a future medical doctor, teacher or lawyer herself. Teenagers are susceptible to temper tantrums and they shouldn’t be punished for the rest of their lives because of it.
Fiona Forte: If this student does not face serious consequences, then this will continue to happen and eventually teachers will no longer want to teach or they will take the law into their own hands despite the outcome. When I was in school many, many years ago, this would never have happened.
Sodi: So, what happens to the adorable little darling? Will she be arrested? Will she be expelled? Oh wait! I forgot, “students have rights”. The next step will be armed guards in classrooms at certain schools.
N Day: Well, if you refuse to pick up a sweetie wrapper and get transfer to a private school, you can only imagine what would happen to this one. This is what you get when you follow foreign influences and the children have too many rights, so they abuse them because they see themselves as untouchable.
That student should be expelled and following that, it’s about time the relevant authorities implement a programme where these disrespectful and violent children get sent to Paragon for no less than four months. Let the soldiers deal with them; they would learn respect and discipline.
• Sherrylyn Toppin is The NATION’s Online Editor.