Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes has called for a national parenting programme to be established as he chastised some parents for abdicating their duties to state agencies.
He was speaking as he dealt with the father of a 17-year-old boy who was before him in the District “A” Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
“A national parenting programme, a mandatory national parenting programme, is necessary, I think. We must have a national parenting programme.
“Parents must be sent to parenting classes as long as your children are born at the expense of the state, as long as your children come to us through the administration of justice, either through the maintenance court or the criminal justice system,” the Chief Magistrate declared.
The teenager, Devon Romario Lavine, of 3rd Avenue, Greaves Land, St Michael, had just pleaded guilty to stealing two bicycles belonging to Christopher Clarke on November 21. (HLE)
